


Fuzzy Love

by Cold_Silence



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Dubious Consent, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:08:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 13
Words: 132,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23387128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cold_Silence/pseuds/Cold_Silence
Summary: Life can be stressful, especially if you’re stuck in a single parent home, have friends that mature without you, and live with an alien catboy. A story about a boy, his friends, and his cat.
Relationships: Kairi/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Roxas/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> **Author** : Cold Silence  
>  **E-Mail** : writer.coldsilence@gmail.com  
>  **Pairings** : Riku + Kairi + Sora, Sora x BHK. (BHK = Blonde Headed Kid from KH II)  
>  **Warnings** : AU, Yaoi, Het, Furs. OOC Roxas due to the fandom personality he was given before information on his character was released with KH2.  
>  **Special Note** : This fic has relationships with things that have tails. Also, this story was started before Roxas's name was revealed, hence why he is named differently in this fic. Don't worry though, this actually fits well with what I have planned for him in the end.  
> 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Author** : Cold Silence  
> 
> 
>  **E-Mail** : writer.coldsilence@gmail.com  
> 
> 
>  **Pairings** : Riku + Kairi + Sora, Sora x BHK. (BHK = Blonde Headed Kid from KH II)  
> 
> 
>  **Warnings** : AU, Yaoi, Het, Furs. OOC Roxas due to the fandom personality he was given before information on his character was released with KH2.  
> 
> 
>  **Special Note** : This fic has relationships with things that have tails. Also, this story was started before Roxas's name was revealed, hence why he is named differently in this fic. Don't worry though, this actually fits well with what I have planned for him in the end.  
> 

**Fuzzy Love**  
- _Chapter One_ -  
  


**He arrived on a special night.**  
  


Sora remembered lying on the sand between his two closest friends the day a fantastic meteor shower blazed across the purple skies. Possessed by a quiet sort of awe, he tried to pick out every comet and imagine how far it had traveled before it reached their home. It was a celestial display that visited Destiny Islands only once every ten years, so naturally almost the entire population of their archipelago home had turned out to see it. Fortunately, their secluded spot gave them a good view of the heavens without having to subject themselves to the crowd of children dotting the beach.  
  


"Sora, do you think that if you wish on a shooting star, then your dreams will come true?"  
  


As always, Kairi's voice gently teetered Sora back to earth, as if he was a wayward balloon that would float away if left unchecked. He shrugged his elbows in answer, too lazy to do much more while his hands were tucked behind his head. "I don't know, maybe. Why? Did you have a wish?"  
  


"Kind of," she answered vaguely. Twiddling her thumbs a bit, Kairi contemplated if she should really tell her thoughts before coming to her decision. "I want to be homecoming princess."  
  


"What?" Sora jerked into a sitting position out of astonishment. Kairi? Homecoming princess? It was so incredibly unlike her. Notions like that were for girls like Selphie, who were interested in makeup, boys and being pretty. These things had never interested his female friend, who always preferred to hang around Riku and himself instead of partaking on other activities that would be considered.. well. Girly.  
  


Echoing Sora's surprise was Riku's laughter. Since the brunette was sandwiched between them, the older boy had to peer around his best friend's butt so that he could smirk at Kairi. "That is so lame. You'll never be a homecoming princess."  
  


Those words of discouragement caused Kairi to blow her cheeks out with consternation. It was bad enough to call her wish lame, but to say that she had no chance of winning rankled her. She was well aware of how dumb her dream sounded, but she had her own reasons for suddenly becoming interested in a contest that was reserved for the popular kids at their school. Embattled by Riku's doubt, she glared at him as best as she could with Sora sitting in the way. "Why can't I be homecoming princess? I can do it, if I wanted."  
  


"You're too much of a tomboy," answered Riku with a shake of his head. It was clear that he thought that Kairi was a lost cause.  
  


"I am not a tomboy! I'm wearing a skirt aren't I?" To emphasize this fact, Kairi plucked at the short, frilly pink skirt currently covering her legs. It was rather unusual that she was wearing it; her typical outfit almost always consisted of a pair of sturdy shorts.  
  


At first, her wardrobe change had surprised Riku, but it all began to make sense to him after she revealed her intentions to become homecoming princess. _So. Kairi wants to look cute_ , he thought to himself. However, the boy wryly noted that she could not take the complete leap to sexiness and wear the skirt without some kind of covering beneath. A pair of black spandex shorts prevented anyone from seeing anything interesting past the two slits in the fabric at the sides of her thighs. "Not even that skirt can save you, Kairi."  
  


"I think Kairi could be princess. It's not like we're not going to vote for her, right Riku?" said Sora.  
  


Sadly, Sora never picked up on the fact that Kairi's new clothing had been specifically picked for him. Even though she had been plucking at her skirt all night and sneaking shy, furtive glances at him, he hadn't commented on her new attire at all. As usual, another one of Kairi's grand plans to be noticed by the boy she liked completely flopped.  
  


Finding the critical failure of Kairi's skirt hilarious, it took Herculean effort for Riku not to burst out laughing. He was of the opinion that their redhead friend could show up wearing nothing but a barrel and Sora still wouldn't notice. "I guess I could support a tomboy princess -- " his words were cut off when the so-called princess threw sand at his face. With an impish grin, he retaliated with a handful of his own. Poor Sora scrambled away since he was sitting in the line of fire.  
  


"I suppose you have a really special wish of your own, huh?" Taunted Kairi at Riku just before turning her head away from another spray of sand. Giggles spilled from her lips as she tried to shield herself from the onslaught.  
  


"I don't have to wish. I know I'm winning the championship this year," boasted Riku.  
  


His confident reply caused his friends to groan loudly. He was always going on and on about his most recent endeavor: conquering the track team. Last year it had been basketball, and the year before that it was soccer. No matter what sport Riku played, he always managed to win some championship or award for it, and when the day was over, Kairi and Sora were made to sit through his ego as he retold his victories. Although Sora truly admired his best friend's prowess, just once, he wished Riku would lose. Preferably to him; a secret yearning that most teenage boys developed from friendships that had been forged through a childhood of adventure games and rivalry.  
  


"What about you Sora?" Finally giving up on throwing sand at Riku, Kairi took cover by sitting with her back to the platinum blonde. That way, he could throw as much sand as he wanted at her without getting any on her face. An interested gaze was turned to her brown haired friend. "What's your wish?"  
  


"My wish?" Sora had so many wishes that he didn't know where to begin. He wished he were taller so that he could beat Riku at basketball. He wished he could pass the final boss of the video game he had been playing for the past two weeks. He wished his mom would cook a real dinner for once. Affecting a serious air, he considered the things that he'd always daydreamed about, before settling on his most recent flight of fantasy. "I wish.. that I could meet an alien!"  
  


"An alien?" Kairi gaped at the boy in disbelief. Only Sora would come up with such a crazy answer, which was why it was fun to ask him questions in the first place. "What would you want that for?"  
  


"Because!" An excited glint entered Sora's eyes as he scrambled to his feet with excitement. "It's someone from a whole different world! Imagine all the things they could tell you, or the weird gadgets they would bring, or the places that you can go on their spaceship - "  
  


Before Sora could go on and on listing the merits of meeting aliens, Riku clothes lined his best friend while he was distracted. As soon as Sora was splayed out on the sand, the older boy crawled on top of the brunet and pinned his arms to the ground. "Sounds to me like Sora wants his brains sucked out of his ears." His captive was treated to a particularly wicked look, accompanied by the sound of suction from his pursed lips.  
  


"Ugh, that's disgusting! Get off!" The minute that Riku gave him some slack, Sora grappled his best friend, precipitating a playful scuffle on the beach. Not one to be left out of their games, Kairi jumped on top of them, creating a dog pile that was sure to end with lots of scratches and bruises that wouldn't be noticed until morning.  
  


{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


**Even from the beginning, he was always getting himself into trouble.**  


****  


Later on that night, when they rowed their boats back to their homes, Sora noticed a plume of smoke rising from one of the islands that was too tiny to be much fun. It was a mere patch of land overgrown with trees and foliage so dense that it was a natural breeding ground for bugs and other unpleasantness that most people would want to avoid.  
  


However, despite his misgivings about the place, Sora's sense of justice got the better of him. A campfire that was not put out properly could cause the small island to become nothing more than charred remains by the next day. Therefore, despite the late hour of the night, he felt it was his duty to check on the source of the smoke in case it was the beginning sign of real danger.  
  


His friends continued past the suspicious island, anxious to get to their homes before they got in trouble with their parents. Sora's family life was a little different, so he didn't have to worry about those kinds of restrictions. None of them were worried about his sudden deviation from the way home; the boy was always chasing after imaginary things that landed him in unexplored areas of their islands. Barely a wave was returned to the departing calls of his friends, indicating that he was already lost to whatever mission he was on now.  
  


Once his rowboat was moored securely on the shore, Sora trudged through a tangle of gnarled trees. The heady smell of burnt wood and some other substance that he couldn't identify hung in the air and became stronger the closer he got to its source. When he finally reached the problem area, it was an odd scene that greeted him. There was no true fire, only the smoldering of a recent one, and it seemed to be coming from the trees themselves. Many appeared charred, and some had their tops sheared off at an odd angle, as if something had crashed into them from above. His nose wrinkled in distaste at the strange petroleum-like aroma that overpowered his nose. Darkness and shadows prevented him from seeing much; what little the moonlight managed to illuminate was covered by a thick film of soot.  
  


Kneeling down, he picked at the strange debris on the floor until he revealed a triangular object. It was palm-sized; its color undeterminable because it was completely charred. It kind of reminded him of pieces from a model kit. "Weird," he muttered. Precisely because it was so odd, the object was stuffed into his pocket; an old habit that he never quite grew out of despite his 14 years of age. When his 15th birthday arrives a few months from now, it could be predicted that he would still be collecting strange things and keeping them in his overflowing room.  
  


Since there was no fire to put out and it was too dark to see anything else of interest, Sora made up his mind to leave the premises. Just as he turned to go, a splash of color stalled him. At first, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Crawling towards the hint of pale yellow that stood out against the black leaves, he peeled layers of debris from what he spotted and gasped at what he found.  
  


It was a cat. If it weren't for its tail sticking out from beneath the pile of dirt and foliage he would have never noticed it. The poor creature was breathing raggedly, its lithe body barely recognizable beneath the blood that matted its fur. Unable to have the heart to leave it there, Sora gently began to scoop the injured creature into his arms. A weak mewl of pain protested the movement, which made his brows draw together with worry.  
  


"Sssh, it's ok." His words were as gentle as his careful cradling. He wondered how a cat managed to arrive on an uninhabited island in the middle of the ocean, and could only come to the conclusion that the same campers that had burned the trees probably abandoned it. The mere thought of someone doing such a thing made him feel angry. When Sora arrived back at his rowboat, the feline was placed on one of the benches so that he could use both hands to row back to his home.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


**When people said that he couldn't make it, he always proved them wrong.**  


****  


A careful bath with a moist towel revealed that the creature had yellow fur decorated with tiger stripes of sandy blonde. Its paws were also light blonde, giving it a booted appearance for all four of its limbs. Dark streaks on its face defied the vertical pattern of its striped body, instead stretching out horizontally like lines of mascara from the corners of its eyes. Judging from the cat's size, it was in that stage of life when it could barely be called a kitten anymore, much as how Sora could hardly be considered a true teenager despite his age. Its injuries included a broken rib and fractured tail, which his mother tried to patch up as best as she could. For days, it lied nearly motionless in a special bed; an ingenuity Sora had created out of an old fruit basket and some blankets.  
  


Despite its injured condition, the cat was the center of attention every time Sora came home. The boy would often carry the basket around the house, taking his furry companion with him whenever he had dinner, watched television or played video games. Sometimes, he would bring it to Kairi's house, where his friend would coo over the kitty and feed it milk from a baby bottle. Nursing it back to health became a pet project of theirs, much to Riku's annoyance. He considered a creature that couldn't do anything else besides lie there and look miserable to be boring, and often tried to get Sora to come spar instead of wasting his time.  
  


On the sunny morning when Sora opened his eyes and found a pair of attentive, cerulean blues peeking at him from the basket, he jumped out of his bed with bated breathe. A closer inspection of the cat confirmed his hopes and caused a smile of relief and happiness to spread on his face. For the first time, the creature gave the appearance of being wide-awake and intelligent, and was able to move around on its own. The color of its eyes had never been revealed until that very moment.  
  


"You made it! I knew you would," he said joyfully. Sora gently scratched the cat's head until its triangular ears flicked back in protest. "You have a really weird haircut." This was referring to a patch of fuzz that stood near perpendicular from its cranium, a phenomena that he'd never seen on any feline before. He shook his own head back and forth in an attempt to move some of his own drooping brown spikes away from his face. "Not that I can talk." The boy plucked at his bed-head, contemplating a haircut as he did every morning. Suddenly, an expression of inspiration lit his face, as if fiddling with his hair had triggered a random firing of brain cells. "That's what I'll call you! From now on, your name is Spike. Pretty cool huh?"  
  


Spike was then forced to crouch as Sora snatched up his basket and ran to his mother's room to show her the cat's recovery. She was just as overjoyed as her son, though she had misgivings about keeping a feline around the house. The boy promised to take extra good care of Spike and to clean up after its potty every day, as well as swear on everything that was holy that he would prevent his pet from scratching the furniture. As long as those promises were kept, the cat would be allowed to stay.  
  


Later on that day, Spike was proudly displayed on the kitchen table for Sora's friends, where it wobbled on unsteady legs beneath all the attention. Sora, Kairi and Riku sat in chairs around it, marveling at how strong it was now as compared to the meek little heap of fur that it was before.  
  


"Why'd you name it Spike?" Riku asked offhandedly while he poked at the cat's whiskers with his pinky finger. The creature didn't take well to being picked on and retaliated by attempting to claw the offending digit. Undisturbed, he continued to provoke the cat with a bored expression on his face.  
  


"Because of his hair. It matches, don't you think?" Sora was pleased by his pet's feistiness. Although he didn't mind taking care of it while it sat listlessly in its basket, he would have been disappointed if it turned out to be a boring cat after all.  
  


"I would have called him Fonzie," Kairi chimed in with a smile, before trying to make the creature ignore Riku by blowing little kisses at it. Spike turned in her direction, but couldn't seem to decide whether it wanted to respond to her calling or keep beating up Riku's finger.  
  


"The little sucker thinks he can beat me. You wanna beat me huh? You think you're good enough?" Riku continued to harass the feline, until he reached the limits of his boredom and simply flicked the cat's nose before coming to a stand. The day was warm and he had several games in mind that he wanted to play with his friends today. "Are we going yet? I left the frisbees in the boat."  
  


"Yah, lemme just put Spike back in his basket," said Sora. He scooped up the cat and then tucked him into the blankets of its makeshift bed, careful not to touch any of the bandages on its body. Spike kept poking its head out, unwilling to be taken away from all the excitement just yet. Nevertheless, the cat was carried to Sora's room and placed on the floor so that if it left the basket then it wouldn't hurt itself by jumping to the ground. Once that was done, Sora began to lecture to his pet while pointing imperiously at several newspapers that had been laid on the ground. "Ok, now remember. That's the bathroom. Baaaaathroom. No presents under my bed, alright?  
  


The cat flicked its bandaged tail, and that seemed to be all the response that Sora was getting. The boy couldn't resist leaning down and planting an affectionate kiss on the top of his pet's head. Then he collected his favorite pitchfork and a voodoo mask, items that would be used in the slightly modified game of "frisbee" they would be playing that afternoon. Just before he reached the door, a light thump came from the direction of the basket. Spike had leaped out of its bed and was following its owner with its tail drooping behind its rear.  
  


"No no, you stay here. You're still too weak to go anywhere," admonished Sora. He used the toe of his yellow shoes to gently push the cat away from the door before closing it behind him.  
  


As he rushed outside to join his friends, he didn't notice his pet climb to the windowsill and watch him leave.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


**He should have recognized the signs back then, but how was he supposed to know what was really going on?**  
  


Spike was Sora's companion whenever he was home. Everyday his pet grew stronger, and soon it became a normal thing to see the cat chasing Sora around the house or vice versa. The boy would spend hours piecing together elaborate forts for his pet, complete with scratching posts and high window seats made out of the things he had lying around in his messy room. He would spend every morning playing games with his fuzzy friend before leaving in the afternoon to join Kairi and Riku for their own fun. Sora became very attached to his pet, sometimes letting it sit inside the fabric of his hoodie while he wandered around the neighborhood. Spike never liked to go on boat rides though, and would run away whenever it saw its owner heading towards the shoreline.  
  


Usually, Sora didn't return from the distant islands until late in the evening; tired and hungry from a day of frolicking at the beach. The beginning of school loomed a mere week ahead, which prompted the boy and his friends to enjoy every last second of freedom that was left to them. Tonight was no different; it was late when he opened the door to his home and waltzed straight to the kitchen.  
  


As always, his mom had prepared a quick dinner that was stored inside of the refrigerator. Today's gourmet dish of tuna fish sandwiches was snatched from the shelves; one quickly stuffed into his mouth before he even closed the refrigerator and sat down properly. He managed to inhale one of the sandwiches when something fuzzy brushed against his legs.  
  


"Spike?" A quick glance downwards confirmed his suspicion. The cat was circling his ankles with its yellow tail tilted high, nuzzling at his skin with one whiskered cheek. Sora scooped it up one-handedly and placed it on his lap, where it continued to brush its face against his chest. "How do you keep getting out of my room? And where did your bandages go?" No matter how many times Sora trapped Spike behind his bedroom door and made sure all the windows were closed, his pet still managed to get outside somehow. He suspected his mother was the one who kept letting him out, but the woman denied it every time.  
  


Placing his meal aside, he began to check how well his pet had healed. To his pleasant surprise, it seemed that Spike's bones had mended very nicely, although Sora continued to touch him gently out of habit. Spike's affectionate nuzzling waned beneath his prodding fingertips, and then its attention shifted to something more delicious. Lifting its upper body so that it could plant its paws on the tabletop, it leaned forwards and began to nibble on the edge of one of the leftover sandwiches. It took a few moments for Sora to catch on to what was happening to his dinner since he was busy examining the his pet's body while it would sit still long enough.  
  


"Hey I'm hungry too!" He jealously pushed his plate out of eating distance from his cat, but not fast enough to prevent it from eating a mouthful of tuna and bread. Annoyed that his food now had cat germs, he placed Spike back on the ground so that he could eat the rest of his meal in peace. Unfortunately, his pet continued to give him heartbreaking looks from the floor, which made him roll his eyes. "Alright fine, I'll give you something. But don't blame me when you start getting fat."  
  


After finishing off the last of his dinner, Sora pushed away from the table and raided the fridge a second time. Waiting inside was a bottle of specially made milk that had been meant to be Spike's breakfast. Upon seeing Sora retrieve this item, the cat mewled excitedly.  
  


"Hang on, at least let me warm it up for you," muttered Sora. One-sided conversations was normal phenomena with his cat, although sometimes the creature would meow back as if in response. Riku always made fun of his friends for it, but they never stopped doing it anyway.  
  


Warming the milk only took thirty seconds in the microwave. Afterwards Sora strode to the living room and flopped on the couch in a sprawl. His pet was practically walking on his heels as it followed, and it didn't hesitate to leap onto it's owner's lap almost the moment his butt hit the sofa.  
  


"Geez, you must be really hungry," commented Sora.  
  


The cat eagerly nuzzled in the direction of the bottle, which was lifted high into the air to prevent it from being reached just yet. Sora used his free hand to scoop his pet into a better position: on its back and cradled in the crook of his arm. Kairi had been the first to feed Spike that way, and although Sora teased her for treating the cat like a baby, he secretly fed the feline the same way when they were alone. Once his pet was settled, the bottle's nipple was edged to its mouth. Soon it was happily lapping at the warm liquid with its pink tongue.  
  


"Riku's right, you are a big baby," he said with a grin.  
  


Riku called the cat a lot of other different names, none of them flattering. He was jealous of all the time that Kairi and Sora spent with the cat. Doubtless he would be much happier now that the creature wasn't as helpless as when it first arrived.  
  


Sora wondered if they should start feeding his pet solid food now that it was healthy enough to snatch scraps off the table. Sadly, he would miss feeding Spike like this. He felt content holding his pet in his arms while it suckled at its drink. It made the house feel a lot less lonely.  
  


Ever since his dad died three years ago, staying home had become a painful experience for Sora and his mother. Every room contained bittersweet memories, such as where his father used to sit in the living room. The place where he would lean against the porch while waving to the neighbors. The rug where he played games with his son in front of the television. It was the reason why Sora and his mother were never home, returning only to eat hasty dinners that didn't last long enough for old memories to creep up on them.  
  


However, Spike made sitting in the living room alone not so bad. There was a tender look in Sora's eyes as he gazed down at his pet, who unabashedly looked back at him with a feline gaze of the most tropical blue. Its eyes always fascinated him. There were flecks of deep navy scattered within an iris of cerulean, a color that was several shades lighter than the boy's own oceanic blue.  
  


A deep vibration undulated from the warm creature in his arms; a purr to express that it was also content with the moment that they were sharing. Sora smiled with delight and used his thumb to stroke one of his pet's rabbit-like hind feet. "You've never purred for me before. I guess you must like me." Its little feet kicked out from being tickled, making him chuckle. "I think I like you too."  
  


Sora stayed up as long as he could to wait for his mother to come home, but in the end he fell asleep on the couch with Spike's fuzzy body rumbling beneath his chin. The next morning, he woke up with yellow fur all over his shirt. His pet was gone, probably off to scratch away at the fort that had been built for it. Sleepily, Sora stood up and wandered to his messy room, deciding that finishing his sleep on the bed would feel more comfortable than staying on the couch. However, his cat had already beat him to it; when he opened the door he found the feline already hogging his pillow.  
  


Frowning lazily, Sora looked to the calendar that was tacked over his desk, preparing to count the remaining days of summer like he did every morning. What he saw made his mouth drop open. Someone had taken a bright red marker and wrote a message over the entire month of August. In large, capitalized letters, the following words were scrawled:  
  


_Fuck Spike, call me Dyne!!!!_  
  


Sora stared at the graffiti in shock, and then turned the same look to his furry companion. His pet was sitting calmly on the bed, licking his paws without so much as a glance in its owner's direction. By degrees, his disbelief dissipated, and then was replaced by a roll of his eyes. "Riku. You could have just said something if you didn't like the name," he grumbled.  
  


Shaking his head, Sora walked to his bed and crawled up beside Spike. Then a thought occurred to him, one that made him wrinkle his nose as he gave his feline friend a suspicious look. "Don't you ever use the bathroom?"  
  


Come to think of it, ever since Spike became capable of walking around again, there had been no presents left for Sora to clean after. He wondered what secret corner of the house was being used as a toilet. Oh well, he supposed the mystery would start smelling sooner or later. Hopefully he would be able to catch it before his mom could find it.  
  


Surprisingly, the cat had rumbled an innocent "rrro" to his question.

  
  
  
  
**To be continued.**


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Author** : Cold Silence  
>  **E-Mail** : writer.coldsilence@gmail.com  
>  **Pairings** : Riku + Kairi + Sora, Sora x BHK. (BHK = Blonde Headed Kid from KH II)  
>  **Warnings** : AU, Yaoi, Het, Furs, Dubious Consent. OOC Roxas due to the fandom personality he was given before information on his character was released with KH2.  
>  **Webpage** : https://coldsilence.tumblr.com/post/433113072/index
> 
> **Special Note** : This fic has relationships with things that have tails. Also, this story was started before Roxas's name was revealed, hence why he is named differently in this fic. Don't worry though, this actually fits well with what I have planned for him in the end.  
>   
>   
> 

**Fuzzy Love**  
  
- _Chapter Two_ -

  
On the morning of the first day of school, Sora was stirred from slumber much earlier than he intended to awaken. A four legged creature had crept through the sun dappled sheets of his bed, inching upwards until it could tickle his sensitive lips with a pink, cool nose and a fan of whispery whiskers. Sora turned his head away from the offending cat, which continued to harass him despite his wish to stay in bed. His pet followed the curve of his cheek with a rumbling purr, tracing its edge until an earlobe was discovered. Dyne's tongue rasped at the soft cartilage, causing Sora to slap a hand over the side of his head and turn over with an annoyed moan.

  
Persistent paws planted against Sora's newly exposed neck, unsheathing claws to delicately knead the skin. Deep vibrations continued to bubble forth like a boiling teakettle, as if his pet was the most gentle of alarm clocks despite the sharp pinpricks of pain it was inflicting on his skin. Finally, Sora had enough and sat up with a disgruntled expression to escape his pet's less than desirable ministrations. His tormentor continued to butt its head against his hips until Sora finally got the message and rolled out of bed. "Mom's s'possed to feed you n' the mornin, not me," came his sleepy murmur, punctuated afterwards by a thick yawn.

  
Nevertheless, Sora shuffled towards the kitchen to feed his feline friend, only to be told by his mother that she had fed him already. Annoyed, he returned to his bedroom and informed his cat that if it kept waking him up at the crack of dawn, then it would lose sleeping rights to stay on his bed overnight. It would have been an effective threat if not for the fact that Dyne always managed to get into his room even when the door was locked. Sora couldn't figure out how the cat kept getting in. Every time Dyne was locked out and the windows were securely shut, he would wake to find a ball of yellow sleeping peacefully on his chest, or be molested to wakefulness by an impish face with bright eyes accented by dark mascara lines on its fur.

  
Since falling back to sleep was out of the question, Sora collected his clothing from the closet and proceeded to the bathroom for a long shower. He wasn't the least bit excited to return to school. There was only one in the entire island that encompassed first grade to twelfth. Everyone knew everybody within it, and they saw each other's faces all year round except for the lucky ones that got to leave for the mainland during the summer. Those kids were always insufferable on the first day of class because they talked about exotic locales that Sora would never be able to see.

  
By habit, Sora didn't end his showers until the water began to turn frigid. At the first hint of cold water, the faucets were turned off and Sora reached through the curtains for his towel. Unfortunately, his hands met empty space, causing him to frown and poke his head out to confirm that the rack was really bare. Strange, he could swear that his mother just finished putting a new towel there last night. Shaking off that oddity, Sora resolved that he was just going to have to put on his clothes while he was still wet. However, before that plan could be executed, it was discovered that the shorts and shirt that he had set aside were also missing.

  
"Huh?" Nonplussed, Sora climbed out of the tub to check beneath the sink and behind the toilet to make sure that his things had not fallen to the ground. Finding nothing, he ran a hand through his damp hair and wondered if he was going insane. Since standing around wasn't going to magically conjure his clothing back into existence, he stepped out of the bathroom to get something new to wear. Thankfully the bathroom was adjoined to his bedroom, so he would not have to wander any hallways naked on the way to his room.

  
Not three steps later, Sora found his missing things. Both his clothes and the towel were uncharacteristically folded into neat little squares on the mattress of his bed. His first suspicion was his mother, though he couldn't guess what possessed her to move his things out of the bathroom while he was taking a shower. Maybe she was getting into another one of her weird moods?

  
A morning breeze pulled Sora's thoughts away from his mom. He could feel his nipples tightening from the cold, making him glad that there was still a towel available after all. It was snatched up from the bed and used to pat the moisture from his skin, starting from his ankles and then working all the way up to the clumped strands of his hair. Toweling his scalp rigorously was the only styling he ever needed for his hair; he liked to keep it wild and spiked in all different directions because he thought it was cool.

  
Next it was time to dress, but Sora was hindered by Dyne, who decided that his clothing was the perfect place to lounge. It was sprawled back first over his shirt, paws extended so that it could bare its tummy enticingly at Sora. The boy flashed his pet a wry look. "So you're not going to move until I pet ya huh?"

  
As if in response, the feline's tail, which was curled between its legs, quirked at the very tip. An idea suddenly struck Sora, one that made him grin rather mischievously. It was something that his dad used to do to him before he went to bed. Leaning down, he buried his face against his pet's stomach and went "PFFFFFFFT" against its fur. The reaction was instantaneous. Dyne scratched the end of Sora's nose and darted to the edge of the bed, tail extended in horizontal affront.

  
Despite the growing welt on his nose, Sora grinned cheekily at the cat before grabbing his clothes off the bed. "Serves you right for getting fuzz all over my clothes. Bad kitty!" Not to mention, 'bad kitty' for the way it woke him up at the crack of dawn. Unlike his pet, Sora didn't get to sleep around all day, so it was unfair to steal away the few hours he had in the morning. Sora glanced toward the LCD display of his clock to see exactly how early he'd been forced to wake up, but his attention was caught by the calendar hanging above it. Whatever he read among the numbers and scribbles made his dressing motions become very slow.

  
The only thing that saved him from his suddenly spiraling thoughts was the chime of the doorbell. Snatching up a hoodie from the enormous collection in his closet, Sora tugged it on while making his way to the front door. He already knew it was Kairi; it was customary for them to walk to school together every morning. Her morning greeting was halfway past his lips as he pulled the front door open, but the sight that greeted him made everything that he was going to say die on his tongue. "Hi Kai---..."

  
Standing before him was Bozo the Clown's lost cousin. At least, that was Sora's first impression of the garish amount of makeup that was currently caked on Kairi's face. Bright red lipstick was applied liberally to her mouth, which looked about 50 times bigger and capable of sucking in a small ship due to the matching lipliner that decorated the edges. A hideous hot pink blush was traced over her cheekbones, making her face look angular and alien-like. Three different shades of eye shadow, green, purple, and blue, colored her eyelids and extended past the limits of her eyebrows in a design that would have made any transvestite jealous.

  
Words completely failed Sora. He didn't know whether he was supposed to compliment her or run away in sheer terror. In the end, all he could do was stand riveted in his spot and stare stupidly at the transmuted face before him.

  
"You hate it," Kairi stated in a sullen voice.

  
"I...ah... ee.. um....." Nothing but insensible sounds eeked past the muscles of Sora's throat. He swallowed thickly and then tried again in a tiny voice. "It's...... it's different."

  
Kairi's lips thinned, which did ugly things to her lipstick. "I knew I shouldn't have let Selphie do my makeup for me." Before Sora could say anything else, Kairi stomped past him and made a beeline for the bathroom. The cat, which had been peeking at the scenario from the hallway, fluffed its tail like an electrocuted feather duster upon seeing Kairi's face.

  
Sora rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, wondering if this was the time to lighten things up with a joke or give the girl some support. In the end, he settled on prudent silence and followed her to the bathroom, careful not to trip on Dyne who insisted on walking between his legs. Eventually, Sora saved himself the trouble by scooping his pet off the floor and holding it in his arms. A finger was left to idly scratch Dyne's ear while Sora watched Kairi purge herself with water.

  
For a long time, only the cadence of water being splashed onto Kairi's face was the only sound in the bathroom. When she finally looked normal again, she toweled herself off and then let out a soft sigh. "I'm really glad that I saw you first this morning instead of Riku. He would have laughed."

  
Sensing that this was a touchy subject for his friend, Sora's next words were spoken carefully and filled with sympathy. "Why would you want to wear that stuff for anyway? You look fine the way you are."

  
Sora seemed to have said the right thing, much to his relief, for his friend glanced in his direction with a shy but flattered smile. "Thanks, but I don't think the rest of the school thinks that way. They wouldn't vote for someone who looks very plain."

  
Sora's mouth dropped open in surprise. "You're actually serious about running for homecoming princess?"

  
"Of course!" Kairi's brows drew together with a small frown. "I wasn't kidding when I told you about that. But I bet you think I'm not good enough just like Riku."

  
"That's not it." Sora tried to lay a placating hand on Kairi's shoulder, but she rejected it by turning her body away from him. "I think you'd make the best homecoming princess. It's just that..."

  
Kairi puffed her cheeks with consternation, then blew the air out in a loud rush. "I know. It's just that things like that are only for the pretty girls."

  
"It's not like you're ugly or anything." At the glower that Kairi gave him, Sora shrugged his shoulders helplessly. "What do you want to be homecoming princess for anyway? All they do is stand around the football field and wave. Looks boring to me."

  
"They get to pick their homecoming prince too, you know. For the dance."

  
Kairi's voice held a melancholy cast, which was completely lost on Sora. He kept on speaking as if he didn't detect the change in her tone. "That's dumb too. She'll just pick Riku again, just like last year." Sora was of the opinion that typical school gatherings such as pep rallies, dances and other things were so lame. They only catered to the popular kids who went to those events just to flaunt themselves. The only thing that remotely interested him was sports, which he finally planned to join this year. Before, he could only watch Riku play from the stands since freshmen were not allowed to join any teams.

  
Noticing that Kairi was wearing a petulant expression, Sora added with a grin, "But I'll still vote for you! You're way more interesting than those other girls anyway."

  
Kairi lightly punched Sora in the ribs, but it was accompanied by an appreciative smile. Then she picked up her bookbag and began rummaging through its pockets. "I brought something for Spike -- I mean, Dyne."

  
Thankfully, there wasn't a clouded look on Sora's face at the accidental mention of Dyne's old name. He had been annoyed at Riku for a couple days because of the message that had been written his calendar. Although his best friend denied writing it, Sora didn't believe him. After being friends with Riku for so long, he was familiar with the wild streak that occasionally emerged in the platinum blonde. Just because he believed that Riku really wanted to rename Spike, Sora relented and changed the cat's name. Still, it was too late to prevent Dyne from becoming a touchy subject between Riku and himself. They might have kept on arguing about it if they hadn't both realized that it was ridiculous to fight over a cat, so in the end the argument was dropped.

  
From her bag, Kairi produced a slim, black collar that chimed with the help of a silver bell that was attached to it. "I got it specially mail ordered. The catalogue said that no matter how big he gets, the collar will stretch with him. See?" To demonstrate, she stretched the black band between her fingertips, which gave way easily before retracting to its original size. As she applied the accessory to their pet (and really, she considered the cat theirs since they both took such good care of it) she glanced up at Sora and giggled. "Did you get in a fight with him this morning?"

  
Sora wrinkled his nose, causing a sting of pain that was an unpleasant reminder of the scratch he was given that morning. By now, the marks had turned to a very livid red. "He couldn't take a joke."

  
"Awwww, was Sora mean to you today?" Kairi plucked the cat out of Sora's arms and turned it onto its back so that she could nuzzle and flutter kisses to its face. The creature seemed to like the attention, considering the way it arched itself to give her more access to its body.

  
"You are so disgusting with him." Cringing at the lovey doveyness, Sora made his way out of the bathroom and headed for the kitchen.

  
Kairi followed him, fussing over the feline the entire way. "I bet you do the same thing when nobody is around."

  
"I do not!" The light blush across Sora's cheeks betrayed his lie. After raiding the fruit basket for some breakfast, it was time to head for school. Kairi placed the cat in the hallway, where it mewled in protest of being left behind.

  
"Don't cry. It's not like you don't see us every day. Don't scratch anything important while I'm gone!" Dyne's ears flattened against the sides of its cranium while Sora lectured at it. When the door was shut, the cat leapt onto a nearby windowsill to watch the two teenagers walk away from the house.

  
Their school was a thirteen-minute stroll away from Sora's place. Halfway there was Riku's house, where they could spot the platinum haired boy leaning up against the porch in wait. He joined them as they passed by; the three of them making a familiar scene that had been repeated every year since they were mere toddlers. The school grounds were noisy with children, who lamented their lost summers or retold their adventures outside of school.

  
A particularly loud group of older kids stood beneath the shade of a palm tree. They were the privileged ones that got to leave Destiny Islands for exotic vacations overseas. Each of them was dressed as if they were going to a conference at the United Nations instead of an ordinary high school on a tiny island. To Sora's eyes, they looked like a bunch of turkeys fluffing their feathers for no other reason than to gain attention. Hence, that particular group of kids was often referred to by the locals as "Turks." Their leader was the student council president, a boy with an expensive haircut that left his sandy hair slick and shiny in the sunlight.

  
Upon seeing the trio approach, the aforementioned council president gestured for Riku to join them. Sora's expression collapsed to a scowl, and he muttered sardonically to his platinum haired friend. "I guess this is the part where you go with your new friends."

  
"I only hang out with them so that I can be in on the committee." Riku kept his sentiments low enough for only Kairi and Sora's ears and waved back at the council president with a phony smile.

  
"Too bad Rufus is student president every year," commented Kairi with a withheld sigh. If only one of her own friends would head the student council, then maybe the social circles would change enough to allow her to actually have a chance at becoming a homecoming princess. Unfortunately, Rufus had been president for three years in a row, a testament to his popularity and shrewdness when it came to hanging onto power. Not to mention the fact that he had most of the students in the school in an iron grip. Many kids were afraid of him.

  
"They want to use all of their fundraising this year for a beauty pageant. God forbid if we need new uniforms for the basketball team, or a new lawn put in for the soccer field, or even a single volleyball for gym class. If it weren't for me, this school would suck more than it already does." It was clear by Riku's ranting that he was not a big fan of the way the school was run.

  
"Wow Riku, you're so noble to us underclassman. And all this time I thought you did it because you were a glory hound." A smirk accompanied Sora's words, mostly because his best friend was a glory hound when it came to other things.

  
Riku attempted a playful punch, which Sora dodged easily. "Hmph. Completely ungrateful." Despite the tone of Riku's words, there was a shine to his olivine, aquamarine eyes that said he found the humor in the jibe after all. "I'll see you guys later. And Sora, try to, you know. Learn something." With that last parting joke, Riku left to join the Turks, who welcomed him with exaggerated enthusiasm.

  
"Hah hah, very funny." Sora's lower lip protruded in an angry pout, and it was difficult to tell if Riku's words or the fact that Riku just left the company of his real friends for Turks caused the expression.

  
"You really should try to stay awake in class. What would your mom say if you got held back a grade?" Kairi agreed with Riku; she was all too aware of Sora's slacker tendencies when it came to getting schoolwork done. She had made it her resolution this year to make sure that Sora made it through the semesters without failing marks.

  
"These people just don't understand my genius," Sora said loftily as he led the way to the interior of the school. Kairi merely shook her head at him and followed.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  
Since Riku was a year older than Sora and Kairi, he didn't share any classes with them. However, the three of them were considered inseparable, at least until the school term rolled around. During that time, Riku was too involved in sports and school politics to spend a lot of time with his close friends. Things had been that way ever since Riku started high school and made friends with the Turks after becoming elected as a representative of his class. It wasn't a big surprise when Riku became elected; he was good looking, mature for his age, fantastic at sports and his family was very respectable.

  
As for Sora, he was content with the way his life was. He typically didn't join any clubs, instead preferring his personal activities to the ones provided by his school. This year, however, he was set on picking a sport to play since Riku had turned him into a fan. Sometimes he still had trouble accepting that Riku was too busy for him now, but Kairi did her best to fill that gap. As a result, Sora's relationship with Kairi became even more closely knit, something most people considered impossible considering that they'd been friends nearly their entire lives.

  
Sora was relieved when lunchtime finally rolled around; he was starving and tired of staring at blackboards all day. The cafeteria was much more alive with the sound of people chattering, bookbags rustling and the occasional burst of uproarious laughter. Since Sora's class size was small, all twenty of his fellow sophomores could fit in one of long benches and tables available to sit in. Sora always sat near the center of the table beside Kairi, and their mutual friends Selphie and Tidus would took their places directly across from them.

  
Today, as soon as Selphie sat down in her usual spot, she gasped upon spying Kairi's clean face. "Kairi! Why did you take all my hard work off? It's because I used too much red isn't it? I'm so sorry! It was just that it was the first time you ever let me do your makeup and I got so excited that I tried to use EVERY single thing that I had which made me break the first rule of makeup of not using too much and then I had all the wrong colors because you're a red head and I'm a brunette --"

  
"Selphie, it's ok, really!" Kairi was embarrassed that other people might find out that she tried to put on make up, she had a reputation for being a tomboy in the school. She ducked her head and hoped that Selphie would keep it down before anybody overheard her. "I guess I'm just not ready to wear real make up, that's all."

  
"Or maybe you're not ready for Selphie's makeup," quipped Tidus from across the table. He grinned cheekily as he spoke around a chocolate bar. "I've seen her coloring books. She can't even stay inside the lines, and she colors everything all weird."

  
"I do not!"

  
"Pink elephants Selphie?" Tidus asked, an amused grin surfacing with the memory of finding that little artistic rendition among her many attempts at coloring.

  
"What's wrong with a pink elephant!" A petulant look pursed Selphie's lips. Tidus was always making fun of everything she did.

  
As the conversation escalated, the upperclassmen sitting behind Kairi and Sora at the next table overheard their conversation. Unfortunately, most of them were overdressed Turks, who found Kairi's attempts at beautifying herself nothing short of hilarious. One girl, a bleached blonde who was beautiful thanks to her expertise in makeup, decided to take their amusement to the next level by speaking loud enough to be heard by the sophomores. "Not even a plastic surgeon could make that tomboy look less like an ugly ironing board."

  
Suddenly, the chatter of the second years died to a low murmur. Several eyes turned towards Kairi, who's face burned red with impotent humiliation.

  
Sora turned around to glare at the Turks, who were laughing hard at the insult. Tidus reached over and poked Sora's arm, his voice lowered to a harsh whisper so as not to be heard by anyone else. "Forget it Sora. You don't want to mess with the Turks this early in the year."

  
Sadly, the Turks were relentless, and their voices continued to be loud as they made fun of Kairi. "I saw her wearing a skirt yesterday. God, it was like watching child porn, with her scrawny legs!"

  
Sora finally had enough. "At least when it rains, her face won't melt off like yours."

  
Now it was the upperclassmen's turn to become deathly silent. Students who hadn't realized that there was a situation forming finally caught on, and many of them began climbing on top of their chairs to get a better view. Sora glared defiantly at the girl who kept talking about Kairi, and she looked down her nose at him as if he were the most disgusting thing in the cafeteria.

  
One of the male Turks stood up from the bench, a lanky boy with a long ponytail of red hair and a pair of sunglasses perched over his forehead. Everyone instantly recognized Reno, a renowned troublemaker who was only friends with Rufus because of his abilities as a hired thug. "Did you just insult my girlfriend?"

  
"That's a girl?" Sora answered with a touch of cockiness. "I thought it was a hyena. That's what she sounded like anyway. It was kind of like a hee haw hee haw!" His imitation of the girl's laughter made several people cover their mouths in horror.

  
Apparently, Sora pulled the last straw. Reno began an aggressive stride around his table to reach Sora, his intent to start a fight frightening the sophomores into scattering away or ducking under the benches with their lunches. Kairi stared with wide eyes as Sora stood up from his own seat and went to meet the oncoming challenge.

  
However, before the two could show each other just who was the better brawler, an authoritative voice prevented the scuffle from happening. "Whas dis going on here?" Its source was Wakka, the ever-vigilant hall monitor who took his job a little too seriously nowadays. Thankfully, he caught what was going on while he was in the cafeteria to buy his lunch. "Yus ain't lookin to get suspended on the first day of school, ya?"

  
Sora glowered at the threat, but his adversary took the interruption in stride. Reno schooled his face to a nonchalant grin, and then he muttered the word "later" to Sora before returning to his table. It was an obvious promise of retaliation. By the time Reno sat down with his friends, all of the upperclassmen were studiously ignoring the younger kids.

  
When Sora returned to his place beside Kairi once more, Tidus and Selphie crawled out from beneath the benches they had used to take cover.

  
"You're in for it now!" Tidus said with an incredulous expression. "You won't be able to walk home without watching your back. Reno won't give up until he's got your head on a pike."

  
"I'm not scared," answered Sora stubbornly. His food didn't look nearly as interesting as it did a few moments ago, so it was pushed aside.

  
"That was soooooo romantic!" Selphie clasped her hands together with a dreamy look. "Kairi was being picked on by some of the scariest kids in school and you came to her rescue like the hero on a shiny white horse! Why aren't you dating??"

  
At the word "dating," Kairi abruptly looked up and then quickly cast her gaze off the side in hopes that no one would notice the blush on her face. Sora, on the other hand, seemed unfazed by the Selphie's question. "Selphie, you're so weird."

  
After all, Kairi was...well. She was Kairi. Why would he want her to be his girlfriend?

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  
At the end of the day, Sora walked with Kairi to her home. The memory of what happened in the lunchroom still hung in the air, suffocating them into silence. Sora was still brooding over it, which was obvious by the light scowl that turned the corners of his lips downwards and knitted his brows together. Eventually, Kairi tried to talk to him, though her voice was soft out of fear of tempting an outburst from Sora. "You really didn't have to do that for me, back at the lunchroom."

  
"They were annoying me," Sora replied offhandedly. "I wish they'd stop picking on everyone else so much. How does Elena keep getting voted homecoming princess anyway? I don't think anyone even likes her. Besides the other Turks."

  
Kairi's thoughts returned to the cruel blonde that had taunted her earlier. Elena was very different from herself; she was older and had soft, feminine curves to her body and grace that was at odds with the sarcastic tongue in her mouth. "Besides her personality, she is really pretty."

  
"Yeah, pretty dumb."

  
Sora's tone signified the end of all conversation concerning any Turks. Soon, they arrived at Kairi's house, and waiting on the porch steps was a surprise. It was none other than their cat, which began padding towards them with its tail lifted in a high salute.

  
"Dyne?" Sora said incredulously. What was his pet doing so far away from home? Sure, it was only a five-minute walk away, but he found it strange that it would wander all the way to Kairi's house and wait there as if it knew that they were coming.

  
"It looks like he was waiting for us!" Kairi let out a pleased giggle as she bent down to scoop the feline into her arms. "He probably got tired of sitting around in your messy room."

  
"He shouldn't be wandering around out here, something bad can happen to him. That's how he ended up all beat up in the first place." It was because of Sora's fear for the creature's life that his pet was never allowed to wander outside without him. He suspected that Dyne's previous family lived somewhere on the island; the same people who had mistreated and abandoned the cat in the middle of the ocean. Sora loathed the day its original owners would come to reclaim their pet, which prompted him to always keep the feline out of sight as much as possible.

  
"Doesn't your mom keep him locked in the house?" Kairi stepped inside her home after opening it, while the cat propped its paws on her shoulder and peered at Sora with its bright, inquisitive eyes.

  
"She says she does, but he keeps getting out. I don't know how he does it. Bad kitty, you're supposed to stay home!" Sora reached over to poke his cat, but had to quickly withdraw his finger when Dyne attempted to bite it. He noticed that his pet was getting a little too feisty lately, and considered not roughhousing with it anymore.

  
As the hours dragged by, the rest of the afternoon was spent doing homework in front of the television and chatting idly about their day. When Sora's attention span reached it peak, he set his things aside and took to petting Dyne until it began to purr contentedly. He found a spot just above its tail that made it arch its hindquarters into his touch, and he continued to tease this place gently since the feline appeared to like it very much.

  
Kairi disappeared into the kitchen when the phone rang, and was gone for a few minutes before returning with the receiver clasped in her hands. It was obvious by her light frown that her recent conversation with whoever was on the line was not a pleasant one. "It's Riku. He just heard about what happened today."

  
Sora rolled his eyes before taking the phone from his friend and placing it against his ear. Without a greeting, he preemptively spoke into the receiver, "Nothing happened, Riku."

  
Nonetheless, disapproval was thick in Riku's voice. "Sora, Wakka made you promise last year that you weren't going to get into any more fights. If he catches you again, you'll be expelled for sure."

  
"They were picking on Kairi," an edge of annoyance crept into Sora's voice. It wasn't the first time he had a run in with the Turks. His trouble with them started a year ago, when he accidentally spilled soda on Reno's shoes. Ever since then, they were on bad terms and were constantly bickering when they had a chance. Last year, their fight had escalated to a brawl that knocked over an expensive soda machine, something that the principal did not appreciate. The disciplinary committee was kind enough to let Sora go with a suspension and a promise to never fight again, but with a warning that next time they would not be so lenient.

  
A sigh colored Riku's voice. "I'll deal with them personally later." Sadly, convincing the Turks to apologize was probably going to be like pulling teeth from an alligator.

  
"What are you going do?" Sora gave a derisive snort. "If they stop liking you then you're out of their little club. Why don't you make up your mind and figure out who your real friends are."

  
Initial hurt at Sora's words quickly flared to anger. Riku's voice was clipped as he answered tersely. "You don't understand anything at all. My family wants me to join every sport and club there is in existence, and I can either fight it or learn to live with it. Even if I'm stuck dealing with the Turks, at least I'm still in a position to do good things for this school. Not everyone can play around and daydream all day like you, Sora. Nothing is as simple as you think it is. Sooner or later you're going to grow up and realize this. So stop being jealous and do something with yourself. If your mom or Kairi won't talk some sense into you, then I'm going over there to handle you myself."

  
All throughout the lecture, Sora's grip on the phone became tighter and tighter, until the knuckles stood out stark white. When he finally got a chance to speak again, rough emotion made him sound a little congested. "Shut up Riku. You're not my dad." Then, the phone was shut off and thrown at the table Kairi sat at, causing it clatter noisily on the wood.

  
Kairi was startled by Sora's reaction. She had been eavesdropping on the telephone conversation, the gravity of which pressed them into a tense silence. After a few moments of watching Sora stand there with his hands clenched at his sides, she attempted to speak to him in a soft voice. "Sora, your dad..."

  
"I'm going home." Without another word, Sora began to pack his things into his book bag. Once that was done, Dyne was scooped up from the carpet and dropped into the cowl of his hoodie, where his pet settled in with easy familiarity.

  
"Sora?" Kairi inquired as she watched all this happen, but there was no answer from her friend. She followed him to the porch, where he exited without a backward glance. Placing her hands on the doorframe, she watched him leave for a few moments, before shaking her head sadly and withdrawing back into her home. "Sora.."

  
Alone, the boy trekked towards his house wearing a frown on his face. Who died and made Riku his father? Oh right. His real dad. Ever since the accident happened, his best friend had become very protective and concerned for him. Although the thought was endearing, at the same time it galled him to be constantly lectured and treated like a little kid by his best friend. Sora, you don't understand this. Sora, you don't understand that. There was only a year's age difference between them, how could Riku possibly know things any better than him? Just because he was an honor student, an all star athlete, part of the student council and popular in school. Just because he would be leaving the island to some fancy college when they eventually graduated, leaving the rest of his friends behind.

  
On the contrary, Sora understood things all too well. He was painfully aware that the people he considered part of his world were changing too fast. His mom had become different, Riku was more distant, and now even Kairi was beginning to poke into the mysterious of womanhood. Not even his friendships were a bastion against the way the world seemed to be turning without him, and the one person who would have helped him deal; to weather these things and help him grow with them, was gone.

  
Today was the anniversary of his father's death.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  
Trouble lurked behind a row of trashcans that sat benignly on a manicured lawn. Three figures were hidden behind the refuse, awaiting the arrival of their oblivious victim. When Sora finally came into view, a voice sneered with satisfied triumph. "There he is."

  
"Nice hiding place, Reno," Stated his companion, who was trying his best not to touch the garbage can in front of him.

  
"Shut up, I didn't see you coming up with any constructive suggestions, Reeve. And we all know how helpful Rude's opinions are."

  
"Rude" was a nickname for the thick set, bald linebacker that was currently opening and closing a pocketknife. Rumors said that Rufus had a falling out with Rude, and that his punishment was to keep his head bald until they graduated. No one knew what it was that happened between them, only that the boy had been unnaturally silent and broody ever since it happened. Nowadays, his conversation consisted of grunts and gestures with his hands, but never any words.

  
"Besides, it'll be all worth it when we leave that kid hanging naked from the palm trees, heheheh," continued Reno with a malicious look in his eyes.

  
That statement caused one of Reeve's eyebrows to raise. "All this because of a potshot at Elena? Whose girlfriend was she this week?"

  
"Mine."

  
"And next week?"

  
"I think its Tseng's turn."

  
Reeve made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat. He didn't believe that Elena was worth all this, Reno merely picked on Sora because he was bored. Unfortunately, when one was a Turk, they had to constantly assert themselves over the rest of the school population by making an example of some poor underclassman. It seemed that this evening, the spiky haired boy ambling close to their hiding spot would be it.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  
Upon sighting his house looming in the distance, Sora's footsteps slowed. There was nothing but more aching memories waiting for him there. He considered detouring to another place, but the familiar nuzzles of a tiny pink nose against the back of his neck made him change his mind. Dyne was probably getting hungry, so it would be better to feed him first before heading out for the night.

  
However, before he could take another step, three shadows detached themselves from behind his neighbor's trashcans, revealing the very unwelcome forms of Reeve, Reno, and Rude. Just what he needed, an after school visitation from the Turks. Scowling, Sora debated making a mad dash for his porch, but the memory of his talk with Riku made him hold his ground. He could pick a fight with anyone he wanted, and if the fight came to him.. well. It wasn't his fault then, was it?

  
"Isn't this a small island?" Drawled Reno as he nonchalantly stalked towards Sora, deceptively docile with his hands tucked into the pockets of his slacks. Reno and Reeve fanned out and penned their victim in from the sides, effectively blocking Sora's escape routes. "So nice to be able to see you when it's not lunchtime, Sora."

  
"Speak for yourself," replied Sora with a touch of cockiness. "I don't think I could eat with that smell."

  
A quick flare of his nostrils confirmed to Reno that indeed, they smelled less than pleasant after hiding behind garbage for three hours. This only made his compulsion to make Sora pay for his earlier transgressions even worse. "I don't think I can eat seeing your face, but you don't see me complaining about it."

  
Before Sora could retort, he was slapped against the back of his head by Rude. Temper flaring, he whirled around so that he could punch the offender, but was stalled by a shiny pocketknife that was suddenly placed in his field of vision. Uh oh. Suddenly, Sora's urge to vent had gained an edge of desperation.

  
"Ah ah ah," Reno warned with a dark grin on his face. "This time, we came prepared."

  
A sudden animalistic hiss emanating from Sora's hoodie caused his attackers to back away a step. Dyne's tail snaked upward from beneath the fabric of the hood and fluffed out in a symbol of warning. Sora could feel his pet's nails digging holes through his clothing and into his back.

  
"What the hell is that?" Demanded Reeve as he warily kept his distance.

  
"It's just his stupid cat," replied Reno smoothly. "Rude, take care of it. I think it can use a haircut."

  
As Rude stalked forward with his pocketknife, Sora tried to break through the circle of Turks by bolting in the space between Reno and Reeve. It was one thing when his own physical health was in danger, another when his cat was on the line. Unfortunately, they were prepared for this move from Sora. Reeve kicked Sora's shins as he tried to rush by, causing the boy to fall face first into the ground. His struggle to get back on his feet was halted by Rude's very heavy foot planting itself on his lower back. "GET OFF ME!"

  
A blur of yellow fur shot out from Sora's hood and darted towards his home. Apparently, his pet was making a break for safety, although Sora would have appreciated it if it had stuck around to claw an eyeball or two from Reno's face. Instead, he was left to fend for himself against the three goons.

  
"Guess your cat didn't want a haircut after all. A shame, he could have looked as good as Rude here, hahahahha!" Reno continued to gloat while Rude held Sora down, who was struggling wildly to break free. Reeve used a length of rope specially prepared for this occasion to tie Sora's hands behind his back. Apparently, Reno's only role here was to make sure that his comrades did all the work. "We'll get his cat later. Start taking off his clothes."

  
Take off his what?! Sora's sputtering ceased with a grimace of pain when Reno yanked his chin off the ground by the hair. The redhead grinned directly into his face as he spoke, "This punishment is brought you straight from the big kahuna himself, Rufus Shinra. If you ever insult any of his group again, you'll be losing more than your pants the next time."

  
Humiliation and fury burned in Sora's eyes when he felt Rude press the edge of his knife to the waistband of his shorts and apply just enough pressure to begin cutting the fabric in half. "You're going to pay for this!"

  
"Says who, chump?" Replied Reno, just before he shoved the boy's face back into the dirt.

  
"Says me."

  
An unexpected alto voice caused the trio to cease their assault. Reno barely managed to look up when a fist was punched squarely onto his nose, sending blood gushing from both nostrils upon impact.

  
Something about the newcomer stunned Reeve into staring at the stranger with wide eyes. However, as soon as he saw Reno fall to that sucker punch, he quickly returned to his senses and scrambled to his feet. "Why you...!"

  
He rushed at Sora's savior with vengeful intent, but soon found that none of his punches or kicks would connect because the other boy was incredibly fast, and armed. A long chain was clenched between the stranger's palms, and while he dodged Reeve's flying limbs, it was wrapped around his knuckles in preparation. As soon as a misstep brought Reeve too close to his opponent, the boy wasted no time to hit him with a metal-covered uppercut to his jaw. Reeve toppled over while holding his chin, which would probably be hurting for days to come.

  
Finally, Rude was the last one left to fight. Almost reluctantly, he took his foot off Sora's back, abandoning his post to face the newcomer. His knife was bravely brandished in a quiet threat.

  
"Is that it? I've seen scarier butter knives."

  
Sora couldn't see what was happening. The action was going on behind him and his prone position didn't let him look behind his back. While the noise of the clanging knife and chain clashed above him, he struggled to loosen the ropes around his wrist.

  
Unexpectedly, Rude's knife became caught in his opponent's chain. The stranger yanked hard on the links, effectively wrenching the pocketknife from Rude and disarming him. Amazement and fear riveted Rude to his spot while the boy knelt down to pluck the weapon from the ground.

  
While this occurred, the other two injured Turks crawled from the ground cradling their faces. Reno barked a hasty retreat to Rude, who was just standing around in quiet surrender. "Come on, we'll get them later!" No more encouragement was needed. Immediately, the three boys left the area at a quick run, but not without promising a later retaliation for the mystery newcomer. "We'll get you next time you FREAK!"

  
Finally, Sora managed to free himself from the ropes. Getting to his knees, he attempted to rub some feeling back into the welts on his wrists and counted his blessings that whatever it was that Reno planned for him would not come to pass.

  
Then, a shadow fell over his body, causing him to remember that he wasn't alone. A pair of bare feet was visible at the very edge of his peripheral vision, and he shifted his gaze to follow the slender muscles of the calves and thighs upwards. However, before he could reach the boy's face, he froze and then quickly turned away. No wonder Reno had called him a freak, this guy was completely naked! An embarrassed flush colored his cheeks and the bridge of his nose a dark red.

  
"Sora Sora Sora," drawled the stranger above him, which caused Sora to reluctantly look at the person's face. It was a boy with a beautiful set of cerulean eyes that reflected red fire with the fading sunset. His skin was a very smooth, untanned creme that could not have been native to the islands, thereby ruling him out as a local. His hair was a treasure of muted gold, hiding highlights that probably blazed in brighter sunshine. The style fell in short, choppy layers to the nape of his neck, but the crown of his head had long strands that either swept upwards in a little arc, or fell over his brow in messy repose. "What am I going to do with you?"

  
Sora couldn't help but gape at the apparition before him. It took a while to gain the presence of mind to speak while the stranger looped his long chain over his left shoulder and closed the pocketknife with alarming familiarity. "Who.. who are.."

  
"What, you're going to pretend you suddenly don't know me? Some reward for saving your life!" An unappreciative frown coiled the corners of the stranger's pale lips downwards. "You might want to close your mouth, bugs will fly in it."

  
Something fuzzy tickled the bottom of Sora's chin. Surprised, he jerked away and found himself staring at a furry, yellow rope decorated with white stripes. It undulated before his eyes as if it had a life of his own, causing him to scramble away on his bottom out of fear. The object was frantically traced to its source, which was the lower back of the person standing in front of him. A tail. This guy had a tail!!

  
Despite the obvious discomfort his presence was giving Sora, a wry smirk tilted over the stranger's lips. "What's the matter? It only wants to play with you." The tail swished restlessly behind him, before settling on an "s" shape that left it towering over the top of his head.

  
It was then that Sora also noticed the extra set of triangular ears perched against the sides of the boy's head. He hadn't noticed them before because they were as blonde as the kid's head, but when they suddenly pointed forwards to focus on Sora's voice, he caught the movement and nearly fainted from the strangeness. "Y.. You... You...."

  
"How many times do I have to tell you?" The boy's tail began to twitch in agitation. "Call me Dyne!"

**To be continued.**


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Author** : Cold Silence  
>  **E-Mail** : writer.coldsilence@gmail.com  
>  **Pairings** : Riku + Kairi + Sora, Sora x BHK. (BHK = Blonde Headed Kid from KH II)  
>  **Warnings** : AU, Yaoi, Het, Furs, Dubious Consent. OOC Roxas due to the fandom personality he was given before information on his character was released with KH2.  
>  **Webpage** : https://coldsilence.tumblr.com/post/433113072/index
> 
> **Special Note** : This fic has relationships with things that have tails. Also, this story was started before Roxas's name was revealed, hence why he is named differently in this fic. Don't worry though, this actually fits well with what I have planned for him in the end.  
>   
>   
> 

**Fuzzy Love**  
  
- _Chapter Three_ -

  
  
Maybe he had jarred himself worse than he thought when Reeves tripped him earlier. However, try as he may, no matter how many times Sora blinked, the strange kid in front of him didn't vanish. His eyes were the size of saucers as he slowly picked himself from the ground, discovering upon reaching his full height that he was at least an inch taller than this "Dyne." Sora's voice was tinged with nervous disbelief as he spoke, "Th... that's the name of my cat..."

  
"Is it really?" Answered the boy in an innocent croon. His lips curled into a mocking smile, obviously finding the reaction to his presence amusing.

  
Upon seeing the teasing expression on the stranger's face, Sora's pride chafed enough to inject more courage into his voice. "And that's my cat's collar!"

  
Dyne affected a look of surprise, and then lifted his fingers to touch the silver bell that dangled from his collar, which looked very much like a choker in its currently stretched state. "It's the best present Kairi ever gave me. Way better than those sardine flavored treats she brought that one time. Yech, I thought I was going to throw up."

  
Confusion replaced any of the astonishment Sora felt. His mind went into a loop in which he recalled Kairi giving that collar to his cat, Dyne, then matching that image to the feline boy before him - also called Dyne - who claimed to have been gifted that same trinket from none other than Kairi. It was clear what was being insinuated here, but Sora refused to comprehend it. Instead of trying to understand, he focused on the fact that this person seemed to like rummaging through his room. "And that's my chain! Riku gave me the pieces for it and I made it myself."

  
With a curious look, Dyne uncurled the chain in question from his shoulder and examined its metal links, which were artistically rendered as little crowns. "Riku's got good taste, for a lamer. Bet those guys have this imprinted on their faces, heh heh."

  
"Give that to me!"

  
"Alright alright, don't be so whiny. I was just borrowing it for a while." Before Sora could say anything else, Dyne tossed the chain over the brunette's head and jerked hard enough to force him to stagger closer. While Sora was busy catching his balance, Dyne dumped the loose ends of the chain down the collar of Sora's shirt. "There, all yours." Looking rather smug, Dyne spun on the heels of his bare feet and began to walk in the direction of Sora's home.

  
Sora was momentarily stunned by Dyne's strange behavior, but quickly recovered when he saw the weird boy heading for his porch. Dyne would have been physically prevented from walking to Sora's house if it weren't for the fact that he was still completely naked. Sora was forced to keep a respectable two feet of distance away from the bare ass and slinky tail that was sauntering in front of him. "Where do you think you're going?"

  
"What's it look like? The kitchen. I'm starving." To Sora's horror, Dyne didn't hesitate to open the door to his house and maneuver in the direction of the kitchen with familiarity.

  
"Are you crazy? You don't have any clothes! What if mom sees you?" Sora's voice lowered to a hiss as he doggedly followed the blonde through the house, senses alert for any indication that his mother could be around.

  
"You never had a problem with me being naked before." Another sly smile appeared as Dyne rounded the kitchen table and turned around, as if to flaunt the goods located at the front of his body. "You should try being naked more often, Sora. You look good that way."

  
An embarrassed blush colored Sora's cheeks and the bridge of his nose a livid red. Once again, his mind was drawn to his cat, which he had doubtlessly undressed in front of many times. Still, it was just not possible for his cat and this guy to be one and the same, and he was getting angry at the way he was being teased. His hands slammed on the kitchen table in frustration. "Will you stop talking that way! You are not my cat!"

  
Dyne narrowed his eyes in response to the hostility, but before he could say anything about it the doorbell rang. A look of horror came over Sora's face, but Dyne didn't stick around to see it. Instead, the catboy bounded in the direction of the window and shoved the curtain aside to see who it was. Upon spotting Riku milling on the porch, the triangular ears atop Dyne's head flattened to the sides. "Oh. It's just Mr. Wanna Be Perfect."

  
Rushing to the window, Sora pulled the second half of the curtain aside so that he could see for himself. Sure enough, there was Riku waiting on the porch with an air of impatience. Judging by the blue and white windbreakers and jacket he was wearing, Riku had come straight from track practice. Great, of all times to give him a "talk," it would have to be while there was a crazy guy with cat ears and a tail running naked around the house.

  
Then again, perhaps Riku's presence would give Sora a little leverage. "You're in for it now. When I tell Riku what a weirdo you are, he'll help me kick you out."

  
"What's the matter Sora?" Dyne asked with the slightest hint of lascivious and a sideways stare. "Can't handle me on your own?" His tailed flicked challengingly as Sora began stalking towards the front door without giving him an answer. However, before the other boy was out of earshot, Dyne added in a wry voice. "Of course you can! Just like you handled those guys that were here 15 minutes ago. Make sure you tell Riku about that too."

  
That last statement caused Sora to halt and grit his teeth with disdain. He did owe this guy some hospitality, didn't he? "You just wait there ok?" He said in a cooler tone of voice. After a moment's thought, he turned a glare in the catboy's direction. "And put on some clothes!"

  
Despite the order, Dyne gave Sora an odd smile. His yellow tail swirled in restless and fluid to and fro movements that were reminiscent of what Sora's cat would do when something interesting was being dangled in front of it.

  
An impatient knock made Sora rush the rest of the way to the front door. He barely made it down the hallway when Riku decided to forget being polite and simply try to get inside himself. He managed to open the unlocked door halfway before Sora blocked entry to his house by wedging his body against the doorframe. With his legs spread and hands planted against the walls, Sora's half-assed attempt at an easygoing smile was rather unconvincing.

  
Riku arched a brow at the fact that he obviously wasn't wanted inside the house. "Are you still mad?"

  
"Mad?" For a moment, Sora didn't know what Riku was talking about. After his encounter with Reno and the appearance of the strange boy, the argument with Riku had completely slipped his mind. Now that he was reminded, it didn't feel as important anymore. "Oh that? Of course not! You're just looking out for me, right?" Sora continued to display a teeth-filled, scary grin.

  
Riku was far from being fooled. He figured that Sora was acting this way because didn't want to talk to him, not because there was a strange guest in the house. "Look, I'm really sorry. I know what today is. I just thought that since it's been such a long time that you would have gotten over it by now."

  
"I'm fine," Sora answered with just a bit more force than he initially intended, "really. It's just another Monday."

  
"I see." After a moment's pause, Riku added in a more solemn tone. "You're not the only one that misses him."

  
Silence fell after that admittance, and Sora's eyes strayed away, unwilling to meet his best friend's. Hearing something so personal from Riku made him regret trying to keep the secret in the house from him.

  
Unfortunately, Sora's body language always gave him away. Especially to Riku, who had years of practice in reading his best friend's emotions. "What's wrong Sora? Did something happen?" Riku did no need Sora to answer; the way his best friend bit his lip said it all. "I heard talk about the Turks making a move today. Because of what happened in the lunchroom, I thought they would come to you. I came here as fast as I could."

  
Bingo. The slight widening of Sora's eyes indicated that Riku had hit the mark. "Oh that? Well.. they did come." Sora folded his arms across his chest with an air of rebellion. Clearly, he didn't take well to the fact that so many people seemed to think that he needed saving lately. "It was Reno, Reeve and Rude."

  
"All three?" A surprised frown marred Riku's face. If there were three Turks all together, then they were definitely planning more than a mere brawl. "And?"

  
"Somebody helped me."

  
"Who?" Aquamarine eyes narrowed at Sora. There weren't too many people who would stand up to the Turks, whoever it was had to be pretty crazy.

  
"A friend."

  
"Somebody I know?" For some reason, Riku felt vaguely threatened by the way Sora was withholding the person's name from him.

  
"Maybe."

  
"Well whatever, whoever it is better be used to watching their back. Reno is a real revenge freak."

  
"If I survived this long, so can he." Sora then proceeded to gripe in an unintelligible mutter about spilling orange soda on Reno's shoes. Just one slip on a patch of spilled milk and he was marked for life. Shaking his head, Sora's attention returned to Riku with a lax smile. "So you see, you didn't have to come running from track practice to save me. I had everything under control."

  
Somehow, Riku doubted that. "Really. Well, since you're so grown up now, I guess I'll be heading back to my house. Got homework to do." Riku turned away from Sora's porch and began walking off. It was a familiar scene between the two of them, Riku faked interest in leaving and Sora always stopped him at two paces with a return barb or a lazy mention of eating all of his chocolate bars himself. Over the years they had gotten pretty creative over the excuses used to pull them back towards each other.

  
Therefore, it was surprising when he heard Sora's "See you later," as well as the closing of the front door behind him.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


When Sora returned to the kitchen, it was to find Dyne seated on the windowsill and watching Riku's leave with a rather unfriendly look. One of his cat ears cocked in Sora's direction, while the other pointed outside as if able to hear noises from beyond the windowpane. "You spend entirely too much time with that guy."

  
"So," responded Sora with a mild frown. He was very thankful to see that Dyne had decided to put on a pair of blue flannel boxers, which he recognized as stolen from his dresser. They were slung low on the blonde's hips, giving his tail freedom to move as it pleased. Now that Dyne wasn't naked, Sora was no longer intimidated into keeping his distance. He began to creep towards the catboy, driven by natural curiosity. "So... Dyne... what part of the islands are you from?"

  
"I'm not from these islands," Dyne responded absently. He had yet to take his gaze off Riku, who had turned into a little pinprick in the distance by now.

  
"The mainland then? California?" Sora's eyes tracked towards the catboy's furry yellow tail, which was dangling to the floor and swaying ever so slightly.

  
"California!" The feline boy burst into laughter, which finally made him cease boring holes into Riku's back. "Isn't that on the other side of this planet?"

  
"Just a guess," Sora murmured, just before he got close enough to grab Dyne's tail and gave it a yank.

  
The reaction was instantaneous. Dyne let out an animalistic hiss that was simultaneous with the lightening fast reflex of turning around and clawing at Sora's wrist with his nails. Pain caused the overly curious boy to let go of the tail and leap back a step while cradling his wrist.

  
Dyne was holding his tail in a similar manner with both hands; a tragic expression of disbelief on his face. "What did you do that for? My poor tail!"

  
"It's real," Sora breathed, his eyes completely wide as he stared at Dyne. The mild scratch on his hand was forgotten in light of this new discovery. "You really are a... a.."

  
"Of course I am!" With a miffed expression, Dyne hopped off the windowsill and was careful to keep his tail as far away from Sora as possible. "You act like you've never seen a cat walk on two legs before."

  
"I haven't!" Sora reached out to touch the triangular ears on Dyne's head, but the catboy flattened them away from his fingertips and hopped of his reach with a wary look. "I'm not gonna pull. I just wanted to..."

  
Although he still looked distrusting, Dyne put himself back in Sora's reach while folding his arms across his bare chest. Tentatively, Sora reached forward and gently touched the fuzzy tufts, tracing them down to where they merged into a scalp buried beneath gold locks. After a few moments, Dyne relaxed with the touching, and his next comment was accompanied with a slight smile. "Those always were your favorite part."

  
At first, Sora didn't understand what Dyne was talking about, but then he realized that the catboy was referring to all the times he poked his cat's ears to make them flick. Sora was appalled to realize that he had teased his pet many times while taking for granted that the creature couldn't really talk or do anything back. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

  
"I couldn't," Dyne answered simply. His ears flattened against the sides of his skull when Sora's fingers neared a sensitive spot. "I was going to tell you today, but those guys kind of messed up my plans."

  
"It was because you were hurt, wasn't it?" Sora deduced. That made sense to him; he remembered how injured Dyne had been when he first found him. "What happened? I found you all alone in an island nobody goes to. It looked like something blew up."

  
"Don't remind me." A look of chagrin came to Dyne's face in remembrance. "The retros blew up when I was attempting a crash landing. Couldn't slow the ship down for nothing when I entered the atmosphere. I thought I was a pancake for sure." A pause came when he noticed Sora looking at him weird. "What?"

  
"You came from outer space?" Sora had an odd expression on his face, as if he didn't know whether he wanted to run, jump for joy or scream. His voice turned into a strained squeak. "You're an alien?"

  
"An alien? If you were on MY world, you'd be called the alien." Dyne jabbed a finger into the center of Sora's chest, causing the poor boy to stagger back from a flash of pain. Dyne's nails were over a centimeter long. Thankfully, they weren't wickedly curved or as sharp as when he was a cat; instead they had a blunted, square edge to them that looked well manicured and feminine. However, they still managed to do some damage, as evidenced by the red marks now coloring Sora's wrist and chest.

  
"Same thing," Sora groused as he massaged the place where he had been poked. "But if you're not from around here, then what are you doing here?"

  
"Don't want to talk about it," Dyne answered cryptically.

  
Sora pouted at that answer, but he supposed he could understand why Dyne wouldn't want to talk about it. His ship had exploded after all. "Alright. Then when are you going back?"

  
"I can't go back. My ship was totaled." As if losing interest in the conversation, Dyne began to wander restlessly around the kitchen.

  
"What about your family? Or your friends? Isn't someone going to come for you?"

  
"They'll never find me." Instead of looking devastated at the thought of never seeing any of his relatives ever again, Dyne seemed pleased that no one from his world would be locating him on Destiny Islands. The thought obviously put him in a good mood, because a sudden grin was turned in Sora's direction. "Well? Aren't you going to feed me?"

  
Sora's brows knitted together in a frown. "You've got two hands. You know where everything else. Get the food yourself."

  
"That's not the way it goes." Dyne gave Sora an imperious look, as if he were lecturing a kid on how to properly wash their hands. "I'm your pet, and you're supposed to feed me."

  
"Are you crazy! You can't be my pet, you're an alien! Aliens can't be pets!"

  
"You made an oath to your first generation familiar that you would take care of me. Are you going to taint your honor?"

  
Sora stared while he tried to make sense of what the alien just said. "You mean my mom?" That must have been what Dyne was talking about, since that was the only person he'd made any recent promises to. "That was different! You're a kid just like me. Well maybe not just like me, but--"

  
"I'm still your cat," Dyne asserted with an upward tilt of his chin, as if it were a source of pride to be considered Sora's pet. "Does this form bother you so much?"

  
Before Sora could answer, Dyne's body was engulfed in a soft ivory glow. Stepping back with surprise, Sora watched with wide-eyed wonder as the catboy's frame disappeared into a silhouette of shimmering white. His form then began to shrink and shift until it became the outline of an ordinary cat, and the light faded to reveal the regular fuzzball that Sora had become acquainted with for the past month.

  
"Dyne?" Incredulous, Sora scrambled to his hands and knees so that he could peer closer at the cat. It was hard to reconcile this creature with the boy he had seen moments before. "How can you.."

  
The cat settled down on its haunches and curled its tail around its rabbit-like feet. Beneath its paws were the flannel shorts that Dyne had previously been wearing. As if in answer to Sora's inquiry, it let out a high pitched mewl, one that Sora recognized to mean hunger.

  
Just then, the hallway was filled with the noise of the front door opening and the footsteps of Sora's mother. She bustled into the kitchen with a harried air, a bright smile alighting on her face when she saw her son. "What are you doing on the floor honey? Pretending you're a cat?"

  
Dyne ignored Sora in favor of his mother, who was approached with baleful eyes and numerous mewls for food.

  
"Sora, did you feed him? He sounds like he's starving!" Without a pause in her movements, Sora's mother went to the spice cabinet and pulled it open. She began shoving around the various ingredients inside with impatience.

  
Sora pulled himself from the floor and shifted his gaze from his cat to his rushing mother. "You going to your boyfriend's house?"

  
His mother let out a gleeful laugh. "We were going to make vanilla pudding today, and would you believe that I made it all the way to the ferry without the vanilla?" The woman finally located the aforementioned vanilla, which was held up for Sora in an absent gesture. The cabinet was then closed and soon she was dashing back out the way she came. "I have to hurry, the whole boat is waiting for me. Be good!" On her way past Sora, she pecked a small kiss to his cheek. "And feed the cat."

  
It was all Sora could do to helplessly watch his mom breeze out of their home; too fast to be told about the kind of day Sora had been having. Now she would never know how Sora had to deal with his friends being picked on, his fights with Riku, his scuffle with the Turks, or the fact that they had been living with an alien catboy.

  
Letting out a defeated sigh, Sora fell into the routine of preparing a bottle of milk for Dyne to keep from going insane. As usual, once the preparations were done, he barely had time to settle on the couch before the cat hopped onto his lap. Sora was startled him into a slight jump when he felt paws on his legs since he now knew that his pet wasn't anything out of the ordinary. "Are you just going to stay that way?"

  
No significant answers came from Dyne. He was as innocuous as any housecat that was more interested in the food in his owner's hands than anything else. Sora's brows furrowed a bit, and it was with unnecessary carefulness that he turned his pet onto its back. As per usual, the cat was comfortable with the change in position and waited for its meal with its tail curled up between its legs.

  
While Dyne lapped at the milk, Sora brows continued to knit in worry. "You really can't stay here. What will my mom say when she finds out? Or my friends? Kairi is going to be so freaked out."

  
A glow seized possession of the feline on Sora's lap, and he was powerless to do anything but lean away as his cat's figure faded to white and elongated. When the transformation was done, Dyne's human form was stretched luxuriantly across the couch and his head was cradled in Sora's arm. His tail was still tucked between his legs, its tip left to rest placidly against his flat stomach. When Dyne spoke, his words were muffled since he refused to detach himself from the bottle of milk. "They'll get over it. It's not that big of a deal."

  
"Yes it is!" Sora was so intent on this conversation that he didn't realize that he was nursing a grown boy as if he were a baby. "If people found out you were an alien, they might take you away and do weird experiments on you. That's what happens on TV all the time."

  
"Ah, the television. It was instrumental in helping me know your language. Fine, I won't tell anyone your little secret." There was a twinkling in Dyne's eyes, as if he was finding this entire situation very amusing.

  
Sensing that Dyne wasn't taking him very seriously, Sora pouted and let his eyes stray downwards out of habit, but then he quickly brought his gaze back up when he saw something he didn't want to see at the corner of his vision. "You're naked again!"

  
"What do you mean again? I was naked as a cat too." If anything, Dyne's mirth grew tenfold, evidenced by the way the tip of his tail began to playfully tap against his abdomen.

  
"Look, if you're going to stay hidden, you can't attract attention to yourself. You either stay as a cat, or wear clothes when you're a person, ok?"

  
"Fair enough." Silence lapsed after that agreement, which was occasionally broken by the sound of air bubbles creeping through the milk. Dyne swallowed eagerly, giving truth to the hungry mewls he had bellowed at Sora and his mother.

  
At this point, it finally occurred to Sora how odd this situation was. Discomfort made him focus on anything except the slender body on his lap, and eventually he found himself feigning interest for the blank television. He kept this up for two minutes until a foreign hand caught his cheek and forced him to return his gaze to Dyne. "What?" He asked in confusion at the gesture.

  
"Look at me," Dyne said in quiet demand.

  
"Why?" Sora asked; his eyes locking with the cerulean ones before him. They were still very pretty with their hints of deeper blue hidden against the edges of the pupil. Dyne had brown eyelashes, a color that was absent from his head of blonde hair but reminiscent of the mascara lines of his cat form.

  
"Because that's what you always do."

  
Realizing that this was true made Sora feel a little weird. Things were different before, cats were meant to be admired for their beauty and cuteness, alien boys were not. Thankfully, his pet hadn't asked to be petted as well.

  
When the bottle was emptied, Dyne settled it on the end table and closed his eyes with a contented expression of satiety. Sora began to feel restless since he was used to just picking up his cat and setting it aside whenever it got sleepy after its dinner. He decided to start up more conversation before Dyne figured out that he was feeling uncomfortable. "So what's your world like?"

  
One of Dyne's eyes opened lazily at the question. "I'll tell you later. I'm sleepy."

  
"You're still lazy," Sora lamented with a skywards look of exasperation. Apparently, he could expect there to be many similarities between his cat and the person before him now, although he had yet to completely accept that the two were truly one and the same.

  
"A cat's got to sleep," Dyne answered, though it seemed the lethargy that plagued him suddenly lifted. Shifting until he was sideways, the alien began to gnaw on the shirt covering Sora's belly.

  
"Hey, cut that out!" Sora wrestled his shirt out of Dyne's teeth before he chewed a hole through his clothing. It was cute yet annoying when he did it as a cat, now it was just plain annoying. When Sora felt a tongue lash against an exposed corner of his stomach, he lost all sense of propriety and abruptly stood up, causing his strange house guest to fall off his lap.

  
Luckily, the feline boy nimbly landed on toes of his feet instead of face planting on the floor. "You don't like playing with me anymore?" Dyne asked with an incredulous air, as if Sora was the weird one for suddenly not wanting to engage in any of their old games.

  
"It's not that, I just.. I'm tired, and there's school tomorrow." It was only partially true. Sora didn't want to play with Dyne as if nothing had changed. He needed some time to adjust.

  
Evidently, Sora didn't need to say anything else. Dyne bounded forward and coiled his hands around Sora's neck, then leaned in close enough to brush their cheeks together in an affectionate nuzzle. The hair nearest to Sora's ear was disturbed by air from a breezy and suggestive whisper, "Then let's go to bed, Sora."

  
Then, Dyne rapidly shrank to his cat figure and emerged from the transformation hanging from Sora's neck by his claws. Wincing, the boy brought his arms beneath his pet to support it before it tore bigger holes into his shirt. "Why do you have to be so weird?"

  
His cat's ears flattened against the sides of its cranium. "Oh right, because you're an alien," Sora muttered aloud as he walked to his bedroom. Dyne was placed inside his basket and Sora went on to change into his pajamas -- though he did so in the bathroom instead of out in the open like usual. Once he was dressed, he returned to the room and glanced back at the basket again, only to find Dyne staring back at him. His cat looked deceptively innocent settled into the blankets as it was.

  
"Why me?" Sora flopped into his bed, wondering if he would be able to get any sleep tonight with an alien catboy sitting across the room from him. In an attempt to comfort himself, he turned onto his side so that his back was to the basket. Although he fell quiet after saying those words, his thoughts continued to repeat them over and over in his head.

  
_Why me._

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Sunshine spilled through the curtains on Tuesday morning, illuminating the supine figure on the bed. After a fitful night, Sora had finally managed to fall into a troubled sleep. When the merciless sun filtered through the curtain slats and burned behind his eyes, he sleepily turned his face away in a desperate attempt to cling to the last vestiges of his dreams.

  
Distantly, he felt the mattress dip beneath a weight, and somewhere his mind registered that Dyne had come for his morning harassment. Nevertheless, he could not move his limbs, nor was he bothered enough to care about the cat prowling over the sheets. There was a sense that something was different, but already his dreams were dragging him back to the world of oblivion.

  
Something soft touched Sora's chin, and although it was not furry, it was as gentle and light as other morning nudges he'd experienced. It was skin to skin contact, and it was a source of tingling warmth that traveled upwards and brushed the corners of his lips on a meandering path to his cheeks. Deep rumbling accompanied the ministrations and lulled Sora into a peaceful state, even as he turned his head away in protest of the caresses. The nuzzling slid over his temple and inevitably traced a path to his ear, where the purring was heard even louder. Then, a moist mouth contoured against the whorl of his auricle, sending a blast of tingling alertness down his spine.

  
Sora jolted awake, a hand flying to quickly cover his ear. Dyne was hovering over him, a very human Dyne whose arms and legs were propped on both sides of startled boy. His tail hung loosely over his rear, as did other things from his very bare body. The sun made the highlights stand out in his blonde hair and triangular ears, giving him an almost ethereal look that was at odds with the mischievous smile on his face. "Rise and shine Sora~."

  
A choked noise croaked its way out of Sora's mouth as he scrambled backwards away from Dyne. In his rush to get away, he ended up banging his head against the headboard. "Ow!"

  
"I guess that's one way to wake up," commented Dyne wryly as he lowered himself onto the spot that his victim just vacated.

  
While Sora was sleeping, he managed to convince himself that everything that happened yesterday was part of some crazy dream. However, with Dyne right there lying demurely on his bed, reality hit him full force. As Sora rubbed his tingling ear, he glowered at the figure lounging in front of him. "Why do you do that!"

  
"Because I like this spot. You keep it warm for me." A content look came over Dyne's face as he turned over onto his back and peered at Sora upside down. His arms were coiled behind his knees, which were folded up until they touched his chest. The catboy appeared to be quite flexible.

  
"Not that. I mean why do you wake me up the way you do?" Conceding the bed to Dyne, Sora pushed away the last of the blankets from his body and jumped off the mattress.

  
"Because I like to," Dyne answered with an innocent smile.

  
Sora shook his head as he rummaged through the closet for his clothes. "Of all the aliens I end up, why do I get stuck with the crazy one?" After getting his things together, Sora walked to the bathroom and closed the door behind him, eager for an excuse to have some space between him and the catboy after such a strange awakening.

  
"Something tells me that he's not adjusting very well," murmured Dyne to the now empty bedroom room.

  
Sora felt much better after taking a long, cool shower. However, when he closed the tap and stepped out of the tub, he discovered that his clothes and towel were once again missing. With growing horror, he finally realized who was responsible for always moving his things. Just to confirm his suspicions, he opened the bathroom door a crack and peeked outside. Sure enough, he spotted Dyne on the bed picking through his stolen clothing, which was strewn on the blonde's lap. "Give. Me. My. Clothes!"

  
"What do I get to wear for school?" Asked Dyne, completely ignoring the other boy's tone of voice. Sora's shorts were lifted upwards so that he could peer through the one of the pant legs.

  
"No way. There's no way you're going to school with me."

  
"Why not?"

  
"What would you know about going to school? Besides, you can't just walk in and say you're a student. You have to have papers, and your parents have to meet the principal, and then school isn't exactly free you know. Everyone will be suspicious of you."

  
"On the contrary, I have learned a thing or two about your mentoring system from your television. It is very similar to my own training, except it is not one on one. I suppose it is more economical to fit a number of humans into one classroom. Besides, as interesting as your room is, it gets boring in here."

  
"Trust me, school is way more boring than my house. Now give me my clothes!"

  
"No, I think I like them." Dyne grinned as he hugged the fabrics to his chest, his yellow tail flicking with playful challenge. "They smell like you."

  
"I said give me my clothes!"

  
"Come and get them." Dyne's grin turned mischievous.

  
"I'm completely naked!"

  
"So am I." At Sora's glowering, Dyne added in a lilting voice. "You're so shy Sora! Like a newborn kitten."

  
Shy?! Sora's ego had suffered a blow. A scowling pout took possession of his lips, and after a few moments of deliberation, he stepped out from behind the door. Shyly placing his hands over his nether regions, he began to inch his way towards Dyne and his clothing.

  
To make matters worse, the feline boy began to make a sultry sound in the back of his throat as he watched Sora approach, his eyes taking in every inch of Sora's dripping wet body without embarrassment. "Why cover your best part?" He asked with a lingering look over the fingers barely disguising precious family jewels beneath.

  
A livid flush colored Sora's cheeks, the mortification of it all nearly making him stop completely in his tracks. "Because you're not supposed to see it."

  
"But I have seen it."

  
"That was different! I thought you were just a cat."

  
"How many times do we have to go over this?" An unhappy look came over Dyne's face, accompanied with the agitated swish of his tail. "I'm still the same cat, so stop treating me so different."

  
Before Sora could really think on that comment, the doorbell rang. Great, because of his little standoff with Dyne, he had completely forgotten about Kairi's usual morning visit.

  
"Kairi!" Cried the catboy as if someone had just announced that it was Christmas in July. Dyne bounded off the bed, scattering Sora's now forgotten clothes as he ran in the direction of the front door.

  
"No no, wait!" Afraid that Dyne had completely forgotten about the circumstances of their situation, Sora scrambled for the abandoned towel and tugged it around his waist while he chased his erstwhile alien houseguest. By the time he caught up with him, Dyne had already thrown aside the latches of the front door.

  
He grabbed the blonde's arm, but it was already too late. The door had been unlocked, and Kairi, upon hearing the scuffle beyond the barrier, was curious enough to push the door open the rest of the way. The sight that was revealed to her made a surprised gasp burst from her mouth: Sora practically naked and holding his quite normal looking cat by its little arm.

  
"Sora! How can you hold him that way, you'll break his arm!" Kairi immediately stepped inside and rescued Dyne from Sora, who looked as if he'd just swallowed something unpleasant. "Stop roughhousing so much with Dyne, he just finished healing from broken ribs."

  
Sora shot his cat a mean glare. "He seems fine nowadays. Like brand new.."

  
After cooing over the "poor" cat, Kairi glanced up at Sora and truly noticing his state of undress for the first time. She looked away with a light blush to her cheeks. "You didn't have to rush to open the door, I would have waited."

  
Realizing that he had nothing but a towel around his waist, Sora uttered a "be right back" before dashing to his bedroom. When he was finally fully clothed, he returned to Kairi, only to be horrified over the fact that she was sitting at the kitchen table and fluttering kisses all over Dyne, who was sucking up all the attention like a sponge. "Don't kiss him!"

  
Kairi paused in her actions to give Sora a strange look. "Why not?"

  
"....Because....." The boy faltered as he tried to think of a good excuse that wouldn't make him look stupid. "...He's got fleas!"  
  
  
  
  
  
"Fleas?" Kairi repeated incredulously, before turning a sympathetic look to the cat. "I knew we should have given him baths. You poor thing!"

  
Before Kairi could get any further with her cuddling, Sora cleared his throat and began heading towards to the door. "Well, time to go! Don't want to be late for school."

  
"Late? But it's still really early." Nevertheless, Kairi picked up her backpack and rushed so that she didn't lag too far behind Sora.

  
"Better safe than sorry." Sora opened the door for the girl so that she would be the first to step outside. Then he turned to Dyne, who had padded down the hallway after them in the familiar "don't leave me" pose with his tail drooping to the floor. "Stay," Sora commanded in the most firm voice he had ever used with the cat, before closing the door behind him.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Throughout school, Sora couldn't keep his mind focused on anything. It kept straying towards the alien in his house, who was probably doing god knows what while he was stuck in class. What was he going to do with Dyne? He said his ship was destroyed, and he obviously had no intentions of going back to where he came from. So then what? Was Dyne going to stay in Sora's house forever? How long was he going to keep this secret? Around and around Sora's thoughts went, yet he could not come up with any viable solution to his problems.

  
It didn't help that geometry was going at its usual brain-melting crawl. When class was interrupted by a knock on the door, the students welcomed the break in monotony. Their teacher, Ms. Mizuno, excused herself to answer it with a bemused expression. The school was so small that unscheduled interruptions such as this one were rare. When she stepped out into the hallway, the students in the front row strained to hear snatches of the conversation going on outside the classroom. The most they could make out was "Oh my, nobody told me. I wasn't expecting something like this."

  
Eventually, Ms. Mizuno return to the classroom followed by a young boy dressed in green and blue Bermudas, a matching baseball cap, a white shirt that dropped past the waistband of his low slung shorts and a pair of brown sandals. His clothing looked very familiar to Sora, and when the kid turned to face the classroom, his mouth dropped completely open.

  
"Ahem, students, I would like you to welcome Dyne. Apparently, his papers got lost in the mail coming in from the mainland, so this is a bit of a surprise to the school. He came all the way from California, so it would be nice if one of you could give him a tour. Dyne, you may pick any seat that you like."

  
"Don't mind if I do." Dyne grinned sweetly, and that smile was all for Sora as evidenced by the way his eyes tracked in his direction. He walked up between the rows of students and then plopped himself down on a seat beside the gaping brown haired boy.

  
"I notice that you did not bring any books," the teacher stated upon giving Dyne an assessing look.

  
"Books? Oh right. You see, I had them all delivered to my house but then my luggage was lost at the airport. Don't worry though, I know someone who has all their classes with me and will be willing to share their textbooks."

  
"My condolences, that must have been quite an experience. I do hope you'll be able to keep up until you acquire new books. Now everyone, back to the Pythagorean theorem!" Ms. Mizuno returned to her lesson with an enthusiasm that wasn't shared by her students.

  
Meanwhile, Sora continued to stare at Dyne, an expression of disbelief still planted on his face. The alien returned the look with a lax smile, and blew a kiss.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


"This better be remotely interesting," drawled Rufus in a bored voice. It was lunchtime, and he had been dragged away from his usual circle of friends by the three sorry looking Turks in front of him.

  
Reno, Reeve, and Rude stood before the student council president in various states of disarray. Reno wore white medical tape over his nose, Reeve's jaw had bandages that didn't quite cover the livid bruise beneath his chin, and Rude just looked ashamed.

  
"We couldn't do what you requested yesterday," muttered Reno with barely checked anger.

  
Rufus let out a small snort of laughter. "I can see that from your.. accessories. You couldn't handle a skinny little sophomore?"

  
"He wasn't alone!" Reno's eyes flashed with sudden anger. "He was with this.. this blonde headed kid. The guy totally ambushed us."

  
"And he was crazy," added Reeve, humiliation returning with the remembrance of how badly the fight had gone. "He came at us completely naked, and wearing this weird cat ears and tail costume. If we weren't so surprised we'd have shown him."

  
"So you got your butts kicked by some naked blonde weirdo?" Reno ran a hand through his perfectly sculpted hair with an air of dismissal. "I am not impressed, boys."

  
"It's not like he was unarmed. He was using this chain -- what the hell are you bothering me for?" Reno flashed Rude a dirty look, who had interrupted his explanation by poking his side. Upon receiving Reno's attention, Rude gestured down the hallway. The ponytailed boy shifted his gaze in that direction; a mixed look of shock and anger lighting his face when he spied what the problem was. "That's him!"

  
Rufus turned an idle stare towards the source of all the commotion. Sure enough, there was Dyne, who was currently being pushed in the direction of the bathroom by a frantic looking Sora. A mental assessment was made of the new boy: acceptable good looks, athletic physique, and a chip on his shoulder. Perhaps he had potential to be a problem after all. "That's it?" Reno began to walk away from the trio. "If he's that much trouble, then keep an eye on him. And please," he paused to look over his shoulder and deliver the last half of his sentence. "Try not to be seen with me until you are presentable again."

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


As soon as lunch rolled around, Sora pushed Dyne into the nearest bathroom so that they could have a "talk." Once they entered the boy's lavatory, Sora checked the stalls to make sure they were all alone while a bemused Dyne poked around the urinals. "Everything here is so primitive," the blonde murmured as he peered down one of the drains.

  
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Once he was positive that they were all alone, Sora wheeled around and began shouting at the top of his lungs. "I TOLD YOU TO STAY HOME!!!!"

  
"Calm down, I can hear you just fine." Dyne took off his baseball cap, revealing the two fuzzy ears atop his head. He massaged the interior of one of them, as if Sora's shouting had hurt it. His tail also crept out from beneath his shirt, where it had been wrapped around his waist all day. "Finally, my tail was getting cramped."

  
"Dyne! Do you realize what you just did? Now everyone is going to be curious about you! They're going to be asking questions, they're going to want to know who your parents are, they're going to --"

  
"I've got it all figured out," Dyne interrupted. He idly spun the baseball cap around his finger. "My parents know your parents. They're old college buddies. They sent me here ahead of them to stay with you."

  
"But my mom --"

  
"--Is never home." Dyne grinned as if he were winning a game. "She won't be around to answer any questions. Is it normal for earth mothers to stay out so long?"

  
"But you're wearing my clothes!" Sora ignored Dyne's question in favor of his own. "What will people say?"

  
"Hey, my luggage was stolen remember? It's not my fault we'll be sharing underwear for a while." Dyne folded his arms across his chest with a look of triumph on his face.

  
His argument was too good for Sora, who had resorted to pouting angrily. Reaching out, he poked Dyne's shoulder hard enough to make the alien flinch. "Alright, you listen. You say you're still the same cat. That means that I own you and you have to do what I say. And I'm telling you to go home right now. It's for your own good!"

  
When he tried to poke Dyne again, the catboy reached out and caught the wrist of the offending finger. "What kind of cat would I be if I didn't protect you?"

  
"Huh?" That stopped Sora's tirade. He watched dumbfounded as Dyne reached inside his pockets and withdrew the same chain he'd borrowed the day before. This was pressed into Sora's palm.

  
"That red haired dumbass will keep bothering you won't he? At least the next time you'll be armed, and he'll think twice before going through me again. It's the least I can do for you, after everything you've done for me. So while we're home, I'm your cat, but out here, I'm your bodyguard." A companionable smile spread over Dyne's lips.

  
"I could have handled it on my own," muttered Sora with a defiant frown.

  
"Of course you could have," murmured Dyne as he stalked forwards, indulging Sora's claims while intruding his personal space. He lifted himself on his toes to reach Sora's cheeks and nuzzle them with his own. "Mrr.. pet me."

  
Sora urked as he leapt away from Dyne, who looked rather miffed at having his demand turned down. "You're crazy! We're supposed to be at lunch. Come on, hurry up and hide your ears and tail. Everyone's probably waiting."

  
Dyne glared for a few moments longer, before placing his baseball cap back on his head. He seemed to like wearing it backward despite the way his hair spilled through the little window and curved up from beneath the brim. His oversized shirt was lifted to allow his tail to wrap around his waist, and when it was dropped back over his hips, he looked like a perfectly normal kid again. The entire process of redisguising himself was accompanied by a petulant expression.

  
"Don't be that way. We had a deal for this too."

  
"Yah yah," Dyne muttered as he followed Sora out of the door.

  
Once outside, they made their way to the lunch table where most of the sophomores were already gathered. Sora took his usual seat beside Kairi, but was forced to scoot over when his tagalong "friend" practically poured himself into the minimal two inches of space leftover between Kairi and himself.

  
"Hiiiiiiii Kairi," cooed Dyne as he planted an elbow on the table and rudely leaned into the girl's personal space. Sora shot him a dirty look from beside him.

  
"Uhm.." Kairi leaned away from the new kid, as if touching him would transfer some incurable disease to her person. "Hi... Dyne right? You know it's funny, Sora has a cat named Dyne."

  
"Does he really?" Dyne answered innocently, while smiling a little too happily at her. "He must be a really handsome pet."

  
"Sora, did you hear?" Tidus piped up from across the table, eyes wide with excitement. "Reno and Reeves got beat up! They've got bandages all over their faces. It is SO funny. I wish I knew who did it."

  
"Actually," began Sora uncomfortably.

  
"Hah. Next time, they'll be lucky if bandages are the only things they escape with, " said Dyne haughtily. Beside him, Kairi looked relieved not to be the center of his attention anymore.

  
"No way." Tidus focused an awed stare at the new boy. "It was you? HOLD THE PHONE! I've to shake your hand!" Propping a knee on the tabletop, Tidus ignored the stares of his classmates as he leaned forwards and clasped Dyne's hand. "You have to tell me all about it! Leave no detail out!"

  
Sora bit back a groan as Dyne launched into a semi-fabricated story of how he happened to stumble on Sora as he was being cornered by a group of Turks and saved the day against ten knives, two baseball bats and bad weather.

  
Even Tidus knew that the story had been embellished, but he didn't care since the result was the same. The Turks had lost to an underclassman. "Whoa. Sora, how do you know this guy?"

  
Once again, Sora wasn't even allowed to talk. Dyne wrapped an arm around the boy's neck and pulled him close, much to Sora's chagrin. "Our parents are great friends! They said I could stay with Sora until they move to the island. So you'll be seeing us together a lot."

  
Sora wondered if it were possible to commit suicide with his plastic fork right now.

  
"Guuuuys!" Selphie came running to their table and planted her hands on its surface hard enough to make their trays to rattle. "Sign ups are ready! Kairi." She gave the red headed girl a dramatic glare. "You HAVE to sign up for cheerleading."

  
"Cheerleading?" Kairi's face contorted with a sour look. "What do I want to be a cheerleader for?"

  
"Because! You are running for homecoming princess and that is the fastest way to get popular."

  
"I don't know the first thing about cheerleading."

  
"It's easy! You jump around like an idiot and shout "GO RIKU!" Come on! We've gotta show that Elena that we're not scared of her!"

  
Biting her lip, Kairi steeled her resolve and stood up to join...... cheerleading. She had the haunting feeling that she was making the biggest mistake of her life.

  
"Weren't you going to join something Sora?" Asked Tidus as he stood up as well.

  
"Oh yah." With Dyne distracting him so much, Sora completely forgot that he meant to join a sport. Knowing that he had something to look forwards to now, some of his worry abated. Sora left his seat and walked towards the sign up tables, inevitably followed by Dyne who looked curious about the whole thing.

  
Lounging in a chair behind the tables was Riku, who was there to answer questions for all the interested students. Upon seeing his friends' approach, he flashed a teethy grin at them. "You guys ready to sign your lives away this year?"

  
"Let me at 'em!" Sora said with a confident smile. Snatching up a pen, he pulled over a clipboard and signed up for the sport he finally decided on: Soccer.

  
Riku tilted his head to peer at the title of the board Sora picked, and smirked. "Soccer huh? It won't be the same as kicking coconuts you know."

  
"Good, then I won't be as sore afterwards."

  
Riku laughed heartily, and then his attention shifted to the blonde-headed kid that took the clipboard from Sora and started signing his name too. "You're a new face."

  
"Yep," replied Dyne in a clipped tone. When he finished his John Hancock, the pen was flippantly tossed to the table.

  
One of Riku's eyebrows raised at the newcomer's obvious attitude. "You have any experience?"

  
"Sora will teach me everything I need to know. After all," Dyne flashed a challenging grin at Riku. "We're good friends."

  
Riku stared at Dyne as he flounced away on the heels of Sora, who had moved too far away to hear their conversation. Then his attention was drawn to the commotion to his left, where Selphie was trying to convince Kairi to sign the cheerleader sheet.

  
"Sign it!" Demanded Selphie in a loud voice.

  
"Oh fine!" Kairi leaned over and scribbled her name on the paper. "There, you see? I signed it. But I can drop out anytime I want."

  
"You'll see!" Said Selphie with a touch of pride in her voice. "We'll show that Elena up, and then win back your pride!"

  
"Cheerleading's not exactly you, Kairi." Commented Riku upon witnessing the exchange.

  
"Well, maybe it's time for a new me then." Squaring her shoulders, Kairi shot Riku an imperious look before stalking away with Selphie.

  
"Everyone's gone crazy," muttered Riku to himself. Suddenly, someone snatched up a tablet from his table, and Riku shifted his gaze upward to spy Reno staring at the clipboard that Sora and Dyne had just signed. "What's up with you?" Asides from the obvious beat down Reno had recently received. It seemed that Sora's mystery friend had been very thorough. Good thing too, otherwise Riku would have been forced to put the hurt on Reno himself.

  
Wearing a sneer, Reno stared at the clipboard in his hands with a scheming gleam in his eyes. "Looks like I'm joining soccer."  
  
  
  
**To be continued.**  
  
  


Continue to: [Chapter Two](https://coldsilence.tumblr.com/post/189819805163/fuzzy-love-chapter-two) \--- [Chapter Four](https://coldsilence.tumblr.com/post/189823188598/fuzzy-love-chapter-four)

  
Return to [Home Page](https://coldsilence.tumblr.com/post/433113072/index).

  
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	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Author** : Cold Silence  
>  **E-Mail** : writer.coldsilence@gmail.com  
>  **Pairings** : Riku + Kairi + Sora, Sora x BHK. (BHK = Blonde Headed Kid from KH II)  
>  **Warnings** : AU, Yaoi, Het, Furs, Dubious Consent. OOC Roxas due to the fandom personality he was given before information on his character was released with KH2.  
>  **Webpage** : https://coldsilence.tumblr.com/post/433113072/index
> 
> **Special Note** : This fic has relationships with things that have tails. Also, this story was started before Roxas's name was revealed, hence why he is named differently in this fic. Don't worry though, this actually fits well with what I have planned for him in the end.  
>   
>   
> 

**Fuzzy Love**  
  
- _Chapter Four_ -

  
Wednesday morning came cloaked in restless gray clouds that dropped intermittent rain over Destiny Islands. The passing showers chilled the air, which seeped through an open window in Sora's room and saturated it with the smell of freshly watered flora.

  
These kinds of days were always perfect for sleeping in, but Sora's houseguest thought otherwise. When the mattress dipped familiarly beneath the weight of an intruder, the sleepy brunette pulled the blanket over his head. Light laughter followed at the expense of Sora's act of protest, which only spurred the boy to turn sideways in hopes to be left alone.

  
For a moment, it seemed that it worked. The presence beside Sora vanished, leaving him relieved and thankful that he could finally get an extra half-hour of sleep. Then, something sharp nipped his toes, causing him to yelp in protest and coil his legs close to his body. Sora emerged from beneath the blankets wearing a scowling pout, one that looked less than dangerous when coupled with his bedraggled appearance.

  
Perhaps Dyne thought that crouching beside the bed would keep him hidden from view, but his position was given away by the long, velvety tail that curled high into the air; signaling his position as effectively as a neon sign. Sora narrowed his eyes at the swaying appendage before grabbing his pillow and tossing it hard at the spot the alien had tucked himself into.

  
"Hey!" Dyne popped up from his hiding place with his furry ears flattened to the sides of his head in offense. Although he sounded as if he had been wronged, his glittering eyes gave away his mischievous intent. "That's no way to treat your pet."

  
"That's what you get for biting my toes," Sora muttered grumpily as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

  
"It's your fault that they were left unprotected. The unguarded parts of your body are always open to attack." A wicked smile accompanied the settling of Dyne's elbows on the mattress and the playful tilt of his tail above his head. "Don't they teach you that at school?"

  
"No," came the drowsy response. Since sleep was hopeless, Sora rolled off the bed and trudged to his closet.

  
"There's no combat training?" An incredulous expression accompanied Dyne's discovery. "But you must have some kind of skill. What about the weapons in your room?" He gestured towards the spears and pitchforks that were leaning against Sora's wall. "Weren't you training with Riku in the use of those things before you started going to school?"

  
"We do use them every now and then, but only to play games." Nothing could keep the warm smile from blooming on Sora's face at the mention of his weapons. Collecting them was a fetish that began with his father, who loved to invent stories about the exotic arms that arrived via mail order. Although he died, Sora continued to buy interesting weapons much to the dismay of his mother. Riku was just as bad, although his parents put a stop to it when a spiked ball and chain arrived in the mail one day.

  
"What about those humans that were going to hurt you? I seriously doubt that the hairless one was using his knife for decoration."

  
At the mention of Rude and his pocketknife, Sora snorted dismissively. "Please. Rude was just trying to look tough. They'd be in real trouble if they tried to hurt me for real." The boy paused, noting that Dyne was giving him a flabbergasted expression. "What is it? Are things done differently in your world?"

  
The way that Dyne's tail wilted out of its merry tilt said volumes more than his words. "In my world, anyone who doesn't fight ends up as a slave. Katina has been at war for the past twenty years."

  
"Katina? That's what your world is called?" At Dyne's nod, Sora's curiosity spurred him on. "Why are they fighting there?"

  
Dyne's nose wrinkled with disgust. "Because twenty years ago, Katina was ruled by a king, but someone slaughtered him and his entire family. There was no one of the blood left to take the throne, so naturally everyone started fighting for it. You'd think that after all this time somebody would have come up with a compromise, but no. Those idiots will be fighting forever."

  
Sora listened to the story with wide eyes. He couldn't imagine what it was like to live on a world that was torn by civil war, especially one that stole the freedom of anyone unwilling to fight. It made him have more of an appreciation for his own boring islands, where his only problem was public humiliation by Reno and the rest of the Turks. "Is that why you left? Because of the fighting?"

  
"Nope. I'm not scared to fight. None of those jerks will ever touch me." Dyne's tail flicked dangerously, matching the sudden glint of determination in his eyes.

  
"Then why?"

  
"I've got my reasons," was Dyne's lofty answer. It was clear that he was not going to give Sora the details just yet.

  
"Still," Sora murmured as he fingered a recently procured shirt from the closet. "It must be pretty bad living there." His sympathetic tone lasted for all of five seconds before his eyes suddenly lit up. "But it must be so cool to know how to fight. I mean, really fight."

  
"With the right teacher, anyone can learn to cause some damage. I might even be able to teach you a few things." Dyne gave Sora an indulgent grin. "And besides that, you do have skill. After all, the games you play are like combat without the intention to hurt. I wonder if Katina would be the same, if the war ended." His thoughtful gaze was shifted to the damp window. "Are you going to bathe or what? Kairi will be here soon."

  
"Oh right." Sora finished gathering up his clothes, but before he disappeared inside the bathroom he gave Dyne a suspicious look. "Why do you get so excited whenever Kairi's around anyway?"

  
In response to that question, a rather goofy grin stretched Dyne's lips. "She brings me toys, she cuddles me, she tells me secrets, and she gives the best kisses."

  
Sora stared at Dyne as if he was crazy. "You like her because she treats you like a baby?!"

  
"You do the same thing too, So~ra."

  
Realizing that this was true, a dark flush colored the boy's cheeks. "W.. well. Not anymore! You're not a normal cat, you're at least half boy so.."

  
"So treat me half like a boy and half like a cat." Dyne grinned, obviously pleased with the compromise that he'd managed to think up all on his own. "You can start by petting me." With that, the feline boy scooted off the floor and plopped himself on the edge of the bed.  
Dyne made an eager picture with his tail curling into the air and his back slightly arched in anticipation of Sora's touch.

  
Sora gave the catboy a bland stare. What was with this guy and his constant demand for petting? It suddenly occurred to him that Dyne was also naked, but he found himself not caring so much for once. Most likely he finally became desensitized to his pet's chronic state of undress. "Alright, but just a little," said Sora as he began to advance towards Dyne.

  
Dyne probably thought that Sora got used to his nakedness as well, because he thought nothing of the serene smile that chased away his owner's flat expression. As Sora got closer to him, he became increasingly excited. His legs kicked against the side of the bed and his tail was doing a meandering cobra dance behind his body. With the touch of Sora's soft hands against the golden silk of his hair, Dyne tilted his head into the gentle sensation with a soft "mrr."

  
Sora scratched his pet's scalp in sensuous little strokes with the pads of his fingertips, a luxury that suddenly became painful when he curled his fingers into a fist and changed the caress into a grade A noogie. Dyne wrenched his head away and tried to claw Sora with a hiss, but the mischievous boy quickly danced out of range wearing a triumphant grin on his face. "Too slow!"

  
Dyne's ears flattened against his skull, and he bounded off the bed to chase Sora. Unfortunately, his target had gotten a head start and managed to make it to the bathroom in time to lock the door in Dyne's face. "Open up!" Demanded the blonde as he banged a fist against the closed door. "You're going to pay for that!"

  
Laughter floated from the other side of the barrier. "You really can't take a joke. Riku does that to me all the time."

  
"Riku," Dyne muttered with a hint of contempt. His ears lost their dangerous pose, and instead tilted off to the sides in petulance. They remained that way as he began to raid Sora's drawers for something decent to wear.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Kairi had her smile ready for Sora when she rang the doorbell to his house. However, the welcoming expression on her face faltered when the door opened to reveal a rather gleeful looking Dyne instead. "Uh... hi.... Is Sora still getting dressed?"

  
"He's almost done," Dyne answered cheerfully. Then he reached for Kairi's wrist and practically yanked her into the hallway.

  
Being touched by him was completely unexpected, and Kairi was bewildered enough to stagger over the threshold before catching her balance. As if things didn't feel uncomfortable enough, Dyne closed the front door, leaving them both isolated and alone in the hallway.

  
Although Kairi believed the story about Dyne's origin and ties to Sora's family, it was very weird to actually see him in Sora's house and wearing his clothes. She recognized the shirt he wore now, one that was red above a diagonal slash that extended from shoulder to hip and black beneath. Due to the fact that Dyne was shorter than Sora, the shirt was too long for his torso and the black shorts he wore were practically falling off his hips.

  
At least he knows how to match Sora's clothes, Kairi thought dryly. Even the backward black cap on Dyne's head matched the outfit perfectly.

  
"Did you bring any presents?"

  
If Kairi had known that alien catboys existed, the all too eager look on Dyne's face would have given him away. "What presents?"

  
"You know. The ones you bring m --" Dyne pretended to clear his throat. "-- For the cat."

  
"For Dyne? I mean, the other Dyne. Sora told you about that huh?" Kairi pictured the boys having a good laugh over her almost compulsive need to constantly buy their pet things. She could care less if they found it funny though; she loved that ball of yellow fur. Speaking of which, Kairi's gaze strayed away from Dyne in search of the cat. "I did bring him something. Dyyyyne! Where are you kitty? I got you something special!"

  
Dyne had a mixed expression of happiness at getting something nice from Kairi and exasperation at the fact that she was calling for him when he was already there. "I don't think he's here."

  
"No?" Kairi looked disappointed that there would be no early morning greetings with the yellow cat today. "That's strange. Usually he's waiting for me in the hallway."

  
Indeed, Dyne had been waiting in the hallway for her, just not in the form she expected. "I saw him run off with the cat next door. I think he's going to be gone for a while." An impish smile accompanied his lecherous insinuation.

  
"I see." Kairi knitted her brows, but she stopped asking about the cat in fear that Dyne would expound on its exploits with the neighboring calico. The subject was changed to help this. "You know, Sora never mentioned that he was expecting someone to visit his family."

  
"That's because it was a complete surprise. Kind of last minute plans. My parents are crazy like that."

  
_Crazy huh._ Kairi was willing to bet that craziness ran in Dyne's family. When Sora finally made his appearance from the bedroom, she felt relieved not to be standing with the strange blonde-headed kid alone in the hallway anymore. An ache settled deep in her heart as Sora smiled at her on his way to the kitchen. Today he'd finally settled on hoodie #13; a navy blue affair that had a silver dragon airbrushed on the back and two pairs of white stripes tracing the biceps. It covered a simple black tank top and matched the loose blue shorts hanging from his hips. At Dyne's insistence, Sora kept his crown chain looped at his side, just in case.

  
Kairi remembered when Sora's mom would dress him in Winnie the Pooh tee shirts and let him run around the beach with no pants. Of course, at that time he was only a toddler. Back then Kairi didn't care about the things Sora wore. That changed one day at the docks, when he took off his hoodie to reveal a frayed gray tank that hugged a slender but hard, tanned body. Kairi found herself staring as he gripped the oars of their rowboat and effortlessly propelled them towards another island, smiling cheerfully and talking the whole time. That was when she first realized that Sora was a boy. A boy boy, as in, those mysterious entities that she would pass with head down and hope that they would not see her and see her at the same time.

  
Naturally, a second realization followed this discovery. If Sora was a boy, then was she not a girl? It was as if seeing the change in him made her want to find the intrinsic pieces of herself. Unfortunately, her efforts to be more girl-like had all been in vain. No amount of makeup or clothing made her feel very feminine, and until she found the secret, she would have to reconcile with the fact that the day when Sora would look at her and linger a little more than usual was far in the future.

  
"Why did you guys dress so nice? The soccer field is going to be muddy." Talking to Sora was always an excellent excuse to justify the way Kairi kept her eyes locked with his. Little did she know, Dyne was also giving Sora the exact same stare of appreciation from beside her.

  
"We have a washing machine," answered Sora flatly, which made the girl roll her eyes to the ceiling. Sadly, there were some things about guys that Kairi was always going to find annoying.

  
Once they were inside the kitchen, Sora prepared a bowl of cereal for Dyne and settled it in front of the blonde. There had been a long argument the night before about the baby bottle and Sora's duties as a "master." Apparently, owning Dyne meant that Sora had to feed him every meal, and if he didn't then catboy would refuse to eat. The entire concept of starvation when one had two hands and free access to the refrigerator was positively mind boggling to the brunette. It made him wonder what kind of life his pet lived on Katana.

  
At times, Sora had the sneaking suspicion that this whole master thing was nothing more than a load of baloney. Instead of taking chances though, he decided that he would at least fix Dyne a plate but not feed him feed him every bite like the alien insisted. He also refused to bottle-feed him anymore. Dyne accepted these terms, although it upset him that he would no longer be fed from Sora's lap.

  
Completely oblivious, Kairi thought that Sora was simply being a gracious host by serving Dyne breakfast. As for herself, she had been to Sora's house long enough to get her own strawberry flavored poptart and glass of orange juice. "So Dyne ran away with the neighbor's cat huh?"

  
A shifty look overcame Sora's face, and he glanced at Dyne before replying slowly. "...Yaaaah...that's exactly it. He went with the neighbor's cat."

  
"You do know what this means right?"

  
Beside Kairi, Dyne had bent over his bowl and was slurping its contents with his tongue. Sora cleared his throat in an attempt to get the catboy's attention and make him stop. "I have no clue what it means."

  
"It means that we have to get him neutered."

  
Dyne's slurping ceased in favor of letting out a shocked gasp. His hands immediately flew over his crotch. "You want to turn me into a eunuch?!" He felt Sora kick him under the table. "I mean, you want to turn that poor cat into a eunuch??"

  
"It's not as bad as it sounds. But if we don't get it done, he'll start spraying the house to mark his territory. And believe me, it smells really bad." Kairi wrinkled her nose at the mere thought of that putrid animal scent filling the house.

  
On the other hand, Dyne and Sora had an opposite reaction: hysterical laughter. The blonde tried to picture himself walking around Sora's house with cock in hand, spritzing every corner so that the whole neighborhood knew that it was his territory, and just about died with the hilarity.

  
"I.. t-think we should wait to see if he actually does it. He's different from all the other cats." Sora tried to say this with a straight face, he really did, but chortles still managed to escape and ruin the seriousness of his suggestion.

  
Sadly, Kairi couldn't figure out what was so funny. Clearly there was a joke that she had missed, and it was making her feel left out. "Why are you guys laughing? This is serious!" Fresh laughter met her words, prompting her to frown and fold her arms across her chest. "Nevermind. Something tells me that I don't want to know."

  
She was more right than she could possibly imagine.

  
Later on that morning, they traveled together to school. As usual, Riku met them halfway, and he looked less than pleased to find the blonde headed kid accompanying his friends. By now, he'd heard the story of how Dyne single-handedly saved Sora from the Turks, as well as that the kid was staying with his best friend for a while.

  
However, Dyne's appearance on Destiny Islands had been so sudden that Riku couldn't help but be suspicious. It wasn't surprising that he was giving the new boy the third degree all the way to school. "So, you're called Dyne."

  
"Yep," answered the blonde, using the same clipped tone that colored the last conversation Riku tried to initiate with him.

  
"Sora's got a cat named Dyne."

  
"No shit."

  
"People keep saying that to him," interjected Sora in an attempt to cover up for Dyne's rudeness. He couldn't understand why his pet was suddenly acting so mean.

  
"I guess that could get pretty annoying," Riku murmured for Sora's sake, although he knew that being compared to a cat was not the reason for Dyne's attitude. "Alright, change of topic. What part of California are you from?"

  
"The north part."

  
"Where north?"

  
"Hollywood!" Sora yelled, which earned himself strange looks from his friends. He grinned sheepishly beneath their stares. "Right Dyne? You said you were from Hollywood." Hollywood was the only city that Sora knew was in California. Clearly, he didn't have a lot of practice when it came to lying to his friends.

  
It couldn't have been more crystal clear to Riku that Sora was hiding something. He made up his mind then and there to grill his best friend for the truth later. For now, since it was obvious that neither Sora nor Dyne were going to be giving any straight answers, Riku turned his attention to Kairi. "Homecoming nominations are today. Are you still going to go for it?"

  
"I don't know," Kairi sighed at the mention of homecoming. "Maybe it was a crazy idea after all. I had no idea that it would be so much work."

  
"Rufus changed the rules last year. You have to get at least three people to nominate you if you want to run."

  
"Figures. Now the Turks will be the only ones who ever win because they're all popular."

  
"Yeah," Riku said lightly, and there appeared to be a touch of sympathy in his aquamarine eyes. For a total of five seconds. "You'd have tripped all over your dress at the football field anyway."

  
Kairi punched Riku's arm, and immediately regretted it when her knuckles stung from the impact. "Ow! You and your stupid muscles!"

  
Sora's eyes tracked towards Riku's biceps, narrowing with a mixture of envy and silent appreciation for the well-sculpted sinews.

  
"Come on Sora. Riku's going to his classes, and we're going to ours." Dyne broke Sora's staring by grabbing his wrist and dragging him away from the platinum blonde. In shared confusion, Kairi and Riku shrugged their shoulders at each other, then Kairi broke away to rejoin Sora and his new friend.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Sora thought that Dyne was dragging him around because he was excited about starting school. He couldn't have been more wrong; Dyne didn't stay awake in any of his classes for longer than five minutes before falling asleep. The only time he was ever awake was in the stroll between switching rooms.

  
Somehow, Sora was not surprised. After all, his pet slept the entire day away at home and was only active in the afternoon, during the night and painfully early in the morning. Coming to school was so pointless for Dyne, how was he going to bodyguard anybody if all he did was sleep? Not that Sora could blame him, as boring as school was. Especially homeroom. He was about to drift off himself before their moderator began speaking.

  
"Alright, its that time of year again. We're going to be nominating homecoming princesses for the sophomore class. Remember, this year you need at least three nominations, and you can't vote for yourself. If any of you have someone in mind, please raise your hand."

  
At first, the classroom was quiet, but a few moments later Selphie's hand shot into the air like a rocket taking off the launch pad. When she was granted permission to speak, she stood up and planted her palms on her desk. "I nominate Kairi! Kairi for homecoming princess!!"

  
Selphie's enthusiastic display of support was touching, as well as a little embarrassing. Kairi smiled tightly and folded her hands in front of her in an effort to look calm and gracious with her nomination.

  
"That's one for Kairi. Anyone else?"

  
Sora raised his hand. "I nominate Kairi too."

  
A surge of warm happiness went through the girl upon hearing Sora give his support. Not that it was unexpected, but it still felt good to hear him say it.

  
"That's two for Kairi, she needs one more. Anyone else want to give their votes?" The teacher spotted Tidus waving his hand from the back of the room. "Number three?"

  
"No, I vote for Yuna!" Tidus's choice earned him a glare from Selphie that was heated enough to melt steel. He gave the angry girl a wilted smile. "...I just... think she's cute..?" Not to mention, he was desperately trying to ask her out to the homecoming dance. Nominating her was just bringing him one step closer to that goal.

  
"Ok, one for Yuna, two for Kairi. Anyone else?"

  
One pale hand lifted into the air. "Forget Yuna, Kairi's hot." Dyne barely lifted his head from its place cradled against arm as he gave his vote with a lazy grin.

  
Kairi was completely surprised to have the new kid's vote of confidence. Sora didn't seem to expect it either, because he was now staring at Dyne oddly. As time went on, there were other nominations, but only a young Turk named Scarlet was given enough votes asides from Kairi.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Kairi was happy to at least be nominated, but her good mood fell when it came time for cheerleader tryouts. The rain had let up early that morning, so the event was being held beside the soccer field. All of the girls were outfitted in blue and white cheerleader uniforms, including the hopefuls who had recently signed up. There was never a shortage of skirts and shirts thanks to the ample funding provided by the student council.

  
It wasn't surprising that the cheerleading squad was well supplied. Nearly the entire team was made up of Turks, who also had a stranglehold on student government affairs. Standing among all those popular girls made Kairi feel as if she were in a middle of a battlefield and surrounded by the enemy, with Selphie as her only backup. The tiny, pleated skirt that barely cover her legs made her feel disarmed as well as ambushed.

  
"My butt is showing," whispered Selphie, who was trying in vain to pull the edges of her skirt down.

  
"Mine too, but I think that's the point." Kairi folded her arms across her chest and sneaked guilty glances at the more full figured girls that made the rather risque uniforms look fantastic.

  
"Don't look so nervous Kairi! The girls might be mean, but the squad leader is really cool. I heard that she's a real cheerleading nut."

  
Before Kairi could question that, a high pitched voice rang throughout the field. "ALRIGHT LADIES. Get your pom poms ready because its time to cheer!"

  
All of the new tryouts gasped as a crazy girl in a cheerleader outfit performed a series of back flips that took her from the sixth row of the bleachers to the ground, like a slinky rolling down the stairs. The more seasoned girls were not impressed since they were well used to the antics of their squad leader.

  
Although the stunt-crazy girl was short, she was very lithe and athletic. Her haircut was even more boyish and shorter than Kairi's, but the confident tilt of her hips and the snug fit of her body hugging uniform banished any thoughts of tomboyness. "I am your squad leader, the Great Cheerleader Yuffie, and you have all entered my bootcamp! Anyone who survives will get to bring spirit to our wonderful school, and that of course is on top of cheering for the hottest guys in Destiny Islands!"

  
While the girls around them giggled, Kairi whispered to Selphie, "She's not a Turk?"

  
A glassy eyed look of worship shimmered in Selphie's eyes. "Nope! Yuffie is a senior and she's not into that stuff. She never turns anyone away from the team unless they're really really bad, so we've got it made! And she's so good at cheering.. Oooo I wish I could be just like her!"

  
"First things first, bring on the PAIN!" Yuffie proceeded to lead the class into a series of the most murderous stretches that Kairi had ever experienced in her life. To think Selphie believed that cheerleading was easy; this sport was torture!

  
To make things worse, Elena was exactly one row in front of them and the discomfort of the stretching wasn't enough to prevent her from turning around and taunting Kairi. "Scarlet told me that you got nominated for homecoming princess. That is soooo cute! I didn't think you had so many friends, Kairi."

  
Kairi flashed a tight smile, the expression at odds with the hardness in her eyes. She answered in the same conversational and sickly sweet tone that Elena just used on her. "I know! And I didn't even have to sleep with any of them to get nominated."

  
"Of course, why dirty yourself with things you don't have a clue about." Elena then turned to her left and gave Scarlet a conspiring smile. "Good luck with your nomination sweetie. May be best female win. And Kairi," she continued, without sparing the redhead a second glance, "as someone with experience, I have to warn you to take your stretches seriously. Cheerleading can be a dangerous sport."

  
The inane chatter of the Turks was annoying Selphie. "What's so dangerous about hopping around and screaming your head off at the games?"

  
Unfortunately, Selphie did not interpret Elena's subtle threat as good as Kairi did.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


"Line up you @#$@$ sissies! Give me 15 laps around the field, and the first person who squeals, faints, or lags behind is out of here." Cid, the resident soccer coach, lit up his cigarette and took a long drag of the flame. Unlike the cheerleaders, the soccer team didn't get any support from the student government, so the kids were forced to run in the mud wearing the same clothing they arrived to school in. "@$@%#@ council sitting on their asses. Can't even get a decent uniform."

  
Some kids didn't particularly care about the uniforms or mud, like Sora. He was exhilarated at the mere thought of playing soccer and was more than ready to prove himself on the field.

  
Dyne, on the other hand, really didn't care about playing soccer at all. Participating was just another way to stay close to Sora and stave off boredom. The loud coach that kept yelling and cursing his head off made the sport even less appealing to him. "I thought you said there was no combat training in this school."

  
"Cid's a little weird. I think he just wants everyone to do their best."

  
A thoughtful noise followed Sora's speculation. Then Dyne shifted a quick glance over his shoulder so that he could spy on the people behind them. Reno, Reeve and Rude were among the boys making rounds around the track. The redheaded Turk caught Dyne's stare and flashed a nasty smile in return. "Reno looks as if he's out to rape you."

  
Sora's face crumbled into annoyance at his companion's choice of words. "Do you have to say it that way?"

  
"I wouldn't put it past him. He looks like the frustrated type." A wicked grin spread over Dyne's face, and then he continued in a cheery voice. "I have finally figured it out. Although the humans of this planet remain relatively peaceful without a monarchy, there is a very subtle kind of social warfare going on. It seems that only those who are strong of heart can survive it without giving in to the higher power or crumbling beneath the pressure."

  
"Sometimes, I really don't understand a thing you say," Sora said with a clueless expression on his face.

  
"Nevermind. Just know that I think you are one of the strong ones."

  
An odd look was directed at the blonde. Although Sora was sure that he had just been complimented, he couldn't figure out what exactly he had been complimented on.

  
When the run was done, Cid promptly told the stragglers to get the #$#% off the field and allowed the rest of the boys to continue with tryouts. "Everyone get in pairs, and I want all of you to partner with someone from a different class. I'm tired of seeing you group with your buddies like a bunch of #%#%@ chickens."

  
No sooner had Dyne turned to do just that when he found Reno practically in his face. "Looks like you're going to be my partner," drawled the Turk with an unfriendly smile.

  
"Sure, if you think you can keep up," answered Dyne with a jeer on his face. Reno returned the same sneering expression before leaving to scoop up a soccer ball from the bin. Sora was in a similar situation with Reeve, who had cornered him before he could choose someone else to be his partner.

  
"Practice passing with your partner. If I see any of you %#%# up too much, you're off the team. I've got a quota to meet and a championship to win. So get to it!" Cid clapped his hands impatiently, and then waited to be impressed.

  
Even though there was six feet of space between them, Reno looked less than trustworthy to Dyne. The catboy knew he should have stayed alert, but the sound of girls yelling from the bleachers was distracting. Down the field, the cheerleaders were doing their drills, and every time they jumped their skirts left nothing to the imagination. Panties appeared everywhere, like fairies leaping towards the sun.

  
While Dyne gaped at the girls, Reno struck. The Turk gave the ball that he placed on a ground a hard wallop that sent it flying towards the distracted catboy. Dyne heard the "thunk" of the ball being kicked and returned his attention in time to reflexively catch it with his hands. Unfortunately, Reno had hit the soccer ball so hard that although he caught it, it still hit his stomach with the force of a punch. Dyne immediately doubled over with pain.

  
"Hey blondie! You're not supposed to use your hands. Feet only," Cid barked from the sidelines.

  
Wincing, Dyne slowly unfolded himself from his hunched position. A dark scowl was sent in Reno's direction, and soon, so was the ball, which he kicked with vengeful force. To his surprise, Reno changed the ball's trajectory by hitting it with his knee, causing it to fly skywards. When it descended once more, he trapped it beneath his foot before it could bounce away.

  
"You're not going to make it in this team," said the Turk with a sneer, "or this school for that matter. You're better off catching the next boat back to-- " at this point, Reno gave the ball a hard punt that sent it rocketing towards Dyne. His next word was uttered while the blur of black and white shot forwards. "--California!!!"

  
There was only a split second to react, and this time, Dyne used his feet as Cid requested. He executed a roundhouse kick that connected with the projectile and sent it whizzing past Reno's head and into the soccer ball bin. The force of the impact threw up a shower of balls that rained all over the Turk. Shifting back into a relaxed stance, Dyne offered a grim smile. "I'm sorry, I don't think I quite understood you. You were sounding a little nasal." This was a reference to Reno's nose, which was still taped from their last encounter.

  
"What the #%%# was that! You're supposed to be working together, not trying to tear each other's head off. You're on the same team goddamn it!"

  
Reno and Dyne shared sizzling glares. Cid wanted teamwork? They would give him "teamwork." Suddenly, the soccer ball became a torpedo between them, each mercilessly kicking it towards the other with intentions to break a bone. It traveled back and forth like a rocket powered Ping-Pong, neither one willing to relent and allow the ball to get past them.

  
Fortunately, Sora wasn't having nearly as much trouble. Reeve wasn't very athletic and spent more time running after the ball than kicking it. Eventually, Cid got tired of watching him flounder and just booted him off the team.

  
"Reeve, don't even bother. Sora's out of your league. Now get the #%#% off the field."

  
Reeve glared at Sora, who was spinning the soccer ball on his finger with a triumphant look. One less Turk to worry about.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


"Time to build towers! Now lets see. Kairi! You look light enough. I want Selphie, Elena and Scarlet to be your base. Let's get to it!" All of Yuffie's orders were accompanied by a smile, indicating how completely oblivious she was to the animosity between certain girls on the squad.

  
Selphie flashed a dubious glance to the fake blondes that were supposed to support Kairi on their shoulders and then catch her as she fell. "Don't you think that's a little advanced for us beginners?" She liked it better when they were practicing aerial splits a few seconds ago, it was much safer.

  
"Don't worry Selphie, its just like playing leapfrog," Kairi said confidently.

  
"This is nothing like jumping over someone's back!"

  
"...Playing leapfrog with Sora and Riku."

  
"Oh." Sora and Riku never played games the ordinary way. Their version of leapfrog was to hop spread-eagled over the enormous boulders that could be found in the enclaves of the beach. Surely, a mistake there would have been a lot more painful than any that could occur here. That was the main reason why Selphie never played with those boys, because frankly, she cried if she so much as got scratched. "You're so brave!"

  
"Come on, we haven't got all day," snapped Elena, impatient to end their time mingling with Kairi and her stupid friend.

  
Frowning, Kairi stalked towards the Turks with determination to show them that she was not cowed. Scarlet linked her hands together, and Kairi used the Turk's palms as platform to help climb onto their shoulders. She mentally thanked a childhood of swinging from tree house to tree house for her good balance.

  
Other cheerleaders made similar towers, and when they were ready, the girls waited for Yuffie's instructions. "Ok, on count of three!" The squad leader went around to each group, checking to make sure that things were being done right. "Keep it straight, and remember to trust your base! Alright!!" She clapped her hands with enthusiasm. "One! Two!! Three!!!"

  
On the last count, Kairi bent her knees, then launched herself into the best midair split she could do. It wasn't perfect, but she thought it wasn't bad for her first try. However, when she came into her landing, two out of the three pairs of hands that were supposed to be catching her did not support her weight. Feeling her body fall further than it was supposed to, Kairi grabbed the nearest person out of reflex, which turned out to be Selphie. They both tumbled to the ground while Scarlet and Elena laughed their heads off.

  
After picking herself from the floor and lending Selphie a hand, Kairi gave the two girls an angry glare. "You were supposed to catch me!"

  
"I'm sorry, our hands must have slipped." Elena's voice was purposely airy, and she batted her lashes at Kairi.

  
Unfortunately, Yuffie had been too far away to notice the sabotage and understood Kairi's fall to be an honest mistake. "Come on girls, that was no good! Let's try it again. Keep it together!"

  
"Kairi," whispered Selphie in a pleading tone. She didn't want to do this again if it meant that they were going to get hurt.

  
"One more time." Kairi read Selphie's fears, but was too angry to leave things as they were. It was one thing to pick on her, but when their antics included Selphie then they had drawn the last straw.

  
On Kairi's second try, planting her feet on Scarlet's palms and hoisting herself onto their shoulders was easier. Again, there was a count of three, and as predicted, the Turks didn't bother supporting her weight when she came down. This time, however, Kairi was ready for it, and as she fell she angled her foot so that it mashed against Elena's toes.

  
"OW!!! You stupid bitch!"

  
"Hey! What's with that language?" Finally, the commotion was enough to attract Yuffie's attention. She walked over to their group wearing a frown on her face. "Is there something going on over here?"

  
"We had a little accident," began Kairi with the most innocent expression she could muster. "They couldn't catch me, and when I fell I landed on her foot."

  
"I'm surprised! Elena's been on the team for three years. Why are you making these silly mistakes?" Yuffie patted the scowling Elena on her shoulder. "I'm sensing some issues of trust here. You gotta learn to rely on each other, or you might find yourself flat on your face in the middle of your cheers. Kairi, I liked the way you looked. I think we should--" a drop of water fell on her nose, a prelude to the rainfall that began to descend from the sky. "Awwwwww nuts! Guess practice is going to be cut short."

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Not so for the boys. After finishing their warm ups, Cid separated the freshman and sophomores from the upperclassmen for a mock soccer game. He believed that getting creamed by another team built character and humility, and it was expected that the younger recruits would be losing miserably.

  
However, that was not the case. The newest additions to the soccer team seemed to be holding up very well against the more seasoned players. Things escalated as rain began to pour in heavy sheets, drenching the field and causing it to become slippery and muddy. Normal coaches would have called the practice off by now, but Cid was too much of a sadist to let them stop.

  
Even if he did, it was unlikely that the underclassmen would have wanted to stop. Especially Sora and Dyne, who took it personally whenever Reno "accidentally" tripped them and made them take a dive onto the dirty ground. There were only a few minutes left in the match, and they were both nearly unrecognizable beneath the mud caked on their clothes. All those falls had been a blow to their pride, and now they hell bent on winning this game no matter what.

  
They forged an alliance to back each other up that was proving to be powerful. Down the field they ran, separated by ten feet as they worked their way towards the goal. Dyne had the ball and Reno was hounding him from behind as he had been the entire game. After being tripped so many times by the redheaded Turk, the blonde could make a fair guess that another attempt would be occurring very soon.

  
In the background, Cid was barking obscenities, and somewhere in his foul speech was the command to wrap it up for the day. Up ahead, Rude was bracing himself to catch any attempts at making the last goal. The bald headed Turk had proven to be a frustratingly excellent goalkeeper. Scoring was sparse for the team of underclassmen, and it was only their good defense that kept the numbers tied at 3 to 3.

  
Shooting now would be too predictable and disastrous, so Dyne flicked his eyes to the side and met Sora's summer blue. That split second of eye contact was all the communication they needed. The ball was bunted in the brunette's direction, just as Reno "accidentally" shoved the catboy for the umpteenth time.

  
By the time Rude tracked the new direction of the fast moving ball, it was already flying in his direction. Sora had spiked it towards the net the moment it reached his corner of the field. The Turk dutifully moved to block it, but he never had time to raise his hands. Stars burst in his vision as the soccer ball beaned him on the forehead and ricocheted back out of the net.

  
All seemed lost for the youngest players, for the ball sailed high over their heads in the direction of the out of bound area. At least, until the blonde headed kid performed a leap that defied the laws of gravity, turned upside down in midair and kicked the ball back towards the goal. It whooshed in without any interference.

  
A roar of celebration went up from the winning team while the upperclassmen gaped in complete disbelief. Reno couldn't believe his eyes. What just happened was like something out of a comic book. No normal person could leap that high without so much as a running start to aid them.

  
"Heh, they're cheering like it's the #$#%% Olympics." Nevertheless, Cid wore a pleased grin on his face. The new recruits were full of spunk, and that's the way he liked it. "Alright squirts, you're all in. You just better show the same enthusiasm during the real games, or I'll kick your #%#%@. Tryouts are over!"

  
Although he was soaked, the chill of the rain didn't penetrate Sora's heated skin. Despite the long forty minutes of game time, the rush of victory staved off his exhaustion. He slapped Dyne a high five and joined the crowd of boys leaving the field. Everyone kept telling them how fantastic they played and asking where they learned their skills. Sora was unable to keep the strut out of his step, nor resist flashing Reno a grin as he passed by. "Great game Reno! Glad to have you on the team."

  
Reno glared at Sora, and the same expression was directed to the blonde walking behind him. Dyne smirked at Reno with a trace of wickedness, and before the Turk knew what was going on, he was suddenly yanked off his feet. He fell face first into the mud, bewildered and angry beyond belief. Reno quickly pushed off the ground and looked behind him to see the culprit who tripped him, but there was no one there.

  
"Watch your step, it's slippery," murmured Dyne as he continued to walk with both hands in his pockets. His grin was even wider now.

  
Suspicious, Reno squinted through the rain at Dyne's back. That kid had to have tripped him somehow, but how did he manage to do it with two hands in his pockets and both feet accounted for?

  
As Reno picked himself the rest of the way off the ground, his eyes never left the mysterious boy. Reeve, who had looked in time to see Reno lying flat on his face, went to his friend's side with a worried expression. He assumed that Reno had slipped on the mud and had a bad fall. "You ok Reno?"

  
Ignoring the question, the redheaded Turk spoke with calculated malice. "There's something weird about that new kid." Reno shoved at the mud that had gotten on his face. "And I am going to find out what."

  
Meanwhile, a certain naughty tail tightened itself around Dyne's waist.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


"That was the most amazing thing I've ever seen," Elena said breathlessly. When the rain had cut their cheerleading practice short, she had taken refuge beneath the bleachers with Scarlet. From there, they had watched the mock soccer match with much interest. "Who is that blonde headed kid?"

  
"That would be Dyne," answered her companion primly. With a disinterested look, Scarlet checked her nails for grime. "He transferred to my class yesterday."

  
"Why is he hanging around that Sora kid?" There was a touch of disgust in Elena's voice. "He obviously should be keeping better company. Find out his schedule for me. I want to know where he is at any time of the day."

  
"I wouldn't even bother. He nominated Kairi for homecoming princess."

  
Speaking of Kairi, she was walking towards the jubilant boys wearing her regular clothes and carrying an umbrella. They could clearly see Dyne leaning towards her with interest, and they interpreted his body language to mean that he liked her. This caused a well of jealousy to swell in Elena. "I can date any boy I want in this school. When he knows I'm interested, he won't even notice that twat anymore."

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Oblivious to what other people thought, Kairi joined Sora and his new friend. Her presence reminded Dyne that there was a present to be had, and he tried to pounce her in his eagerness to have it - completely forgetting that he wasn't in the right form for it. Kairi dodged what she thought was an attempt to hug her and hid behind Sora for protection. "Dyne! You're all muddy." Not to mention that he really needed to stop intruding her comfort zone.

  
"He's just excited," ventured Sora with a smile; too ecstatic over their recent match to notice that Kairi was being weirded out. "Did you see the way we creamed Reno and the upperclassmen? We were awesome out there!

  
Sora's enthusiasm was contagious, and it didn't take much for Kairi's mood to lighten as well. "Yes! All the cheerleaders were watching. Everyone thought you guys were great."

  
"Why aren't you wearing that skirt anymore?" Asked Dyne, while smiling in a way that was less than proprietous.

  
"Because it's cold, it's raining, and the field is muddy." Kairi read into the blonde's interest and gave him a stern, "back off" stare as a warning. However, the expression abated a bit as she continued. "By the way, you didn't really have to nominate me. Thanks all the same though."

  
Kairi thought that Dyne had nominated her out of pity. The catboy's expression became a little more serious, though he continued to grin at her. "Thanks? Who wouldn't nominate a hot girl? Besides, where I come from, red hair is considered a mark of royalty."

  
Even though she had misgivings about Dyne, Kairi couldn't help becoming flustered over the compliment. Not too many people told her that she looked nice, in fact, only her parents ever did. Despite her shy embarrassment though, she couldn't help catching the second half of what Dyne said. "There's royalty in California?"

  
Before Dyne could dig his hole any deeper, Sora interrupted the conversation. "Kairi, I'm going to go straight home today. I need a shower." That was an understatement. Considering how dirty they'd gotten, they were probably going to need a fire hose. "And since you've only got one umbrella, we're going to run the rest of the way. Race you to the house!"

  
"You're on!" Dyne grinned and prepared to sprint with Sora.

  
"Wait! Before you go, can you give this to Dyne? The cat I mean." Before the boys could get too far, Kairi rummaged through the things in her bag and retrieved a mouse shaped plushie. The herbal smell of catnip drifted from the present. Dyne's eyes glowed as he watched her stuff it into Sora's book bag. "Tell me if he likes it, ok?"

  
"He loves it!" Exclaimed Dyne, unaware that his tail was beginning to sneak out from beneath his shirt.

  
Thankfully, Sora spotted the yellow appendage flicking with delight before Kairi did, and he wedged himself directly beside the other boy to block it from view. "Anyway, we have to go. We'll see you later Kairi, bye!" Before she could say anything else, Sora shoved Dyne to get him to start running and made sure to stay behind him so no one else could see his tail.

  
When they were out of earshot, Sora whispered "Your tail is showing!" Dyne uttered an "oops" before retucking the appendage back beneath his shirt. That had been a close call, but they were too excited to really give the incident much thought. Instead, they crowed over their victory and the expression on Reno's face the entire way home.

  
Upon approaching the house, the glow of lights and aroma of food alerted them to the fact that Sora's mom was around - for once. "Guess its time for me to hide," murmured Dyne, just before shifting into his animal form. Unfortunately, even though he shed his clothing with the transformation, the mud did not come off as easy. He simply changed from a very dirty boy to a very dirty cat.

  
Sora scooped up the discarded clothing and his pet from the ground before entering the house. His mother, hearing the front door open, left the kitchen to greet her son in the hallway. Unfortunately, her welcoming smile turned into open-mouthed shock upon seeing the muddy mess that Sora had become. "What happened to you! How can you let yourself get this filthy?" Her gaze trailed with disapproval over Sora's clothes, and then stopped at the cat. A scandalized gasp sifted past her lips as soon as she spied the dirty creature. "You are not letting that thing run around the house until it is CLEAN. You march straight to the bathroom and give that cat a bath, capish?"

  
"Capish," Sora answered; too used to her motherly criticisms to really be affected by them anymore. Instead, he was drawn to the smell of something nice roasting in the oven, as well as curious about her being home. "You're actually making dinner. Is it a special occasion?"

  
Apparently, he'd hit on something interesting, because his mother was suddenly wringing her hands and smiling like a little schoolgirl. "I haven't done it in a while have I? I thought we could have a nice dinner for once. Hurry up and change, it'll be ready soon."

  
Intrigued, but confused as ever by his mom's antics, Sora went to the adjoining bathroom of his bedroom. Dyne's muddy clothing was dropped into the sink, and the feline itself was plopped onto the fuzzy seat cover of the toilet. Then, Sora leaned over the bathtub and turned on the tap, unaware that his cat had turned its ears down with the sound of gushing water. When the water level had risen to a sufficient amount, he plucked his pet by its tiny waist and began to lower it into the water.

  
Or at least, he tried to. He didn't get very far when there was a brilliant flare of light that eventually faded to reveal a more human Dyne - who had his legs spread and propped against the sides of the basin to prevent himself from being lowered any further. "Hell. No."

  
"What's the problem? You want to do this yourself?" Worried that Dyne might accidentally slip and hurt himself, Sora continued to hold him by the waist. Although the alien's balance was impressive, Sora was untrusting of it.

  
"N.. no, I'll just be leaving the bathroom now."

  
"You're covered in mud, and you heard what mom said. She wants to see you clean."

  
"I'll just lick myself," offered the blonde. His tail flicked nervously behind him.

  
"Are you crazy! Just get in the tub already, I want to take a bath too."

  
"No way, I might drown!"

  
Sora gave the catboy an incredulous look. "There's only two inches of water. How can you drown in that?"

  
"Water and me don't mix," said his pet with a flighty expression. "So just let me leave the bathroom; I can take care of things my own way."

  
"No, that's disgusting! Licking all that mud might make you sick." Sora was nearing the end of his patience, especially since the more they stalled, the longer he was denied a preciously rare dinner made by his mother. "Just get in."

  
"No!"

  
"Come on, I'll be right here with you."

  
With his ears flattened dolefully against the sides of his head, Dyne looked less than impressed. "That's easy for you to say, you're out there and I'm in here."

  
"Fine, then I'll go in with you. Happy now?"

  
"I'm not taking a bath."

  
"Dyne," said Sora testily, "as your owner I am ordering you to take a bath right now."

  
Dyne didn't take well to Sora's tone of voice. His arms folded defiantly across his chest and his tail lowered from its usual spot above his head to sway in an agitated dance closer to the ground. If Sora were familiar with Katina's customs, he would have known that the sudden fall of the appendage was congruent with his pet's dip in respect for him. "Ooooo Sora, that was so compelling. I shudder in fear of your authority."

  
That was the last straw. Even from the kitchen, Sora's mother could hear the crashes and cat screeches coming from the fight that broke out in the bathroom. Luckily for Sora, she didn't investigate since she could tell from the noise that it was only her son trying to give his pet a bath. She supposed that a few scratches would teach Sora to be more responsible and make sure the cat stayed clean at all times.

  
Inside the bathroom, Dyne's skin squealed wetly against porcelain as he repeatedly tried to jump out of the tub. His efforts were hindered by Sora, who had his tail wrapped around his wrist so that he could keep his pet anchored in place. Eventually Dyne was pulled close enough to be put into a headlock. "Just five minutes, geez! Sit still!"

  
"Nooo! I'm drowning! I'm gonna die!" Sadly, Dyne was in a panic. If he was in his usual frame of mind, he would have been able to knock Sora out and escape this situation, but instead he could only emit the most heart breaking yowls of distress that were unheard by anyone who cared. It made Sora feel a little sorry for him, but even more annoyed at the fact that he was this worked up over two inches of water.

  
In time, Dyne's struggles were subdued by his own livid fear, which left him limp and obedient in Sora's arms. Tentatively, the brunette released him and was relieved that his pet merely sat in the middle of the tub without further attempts at escape. Dyne wilted in place; displaying submission with lowered head and all fuzzy appendages drooping. His cries died down to piteous mewls, which gained volume when Sora took the shower head and used it to douse him with water.

  
After rinsing the worst of the mess off, Sora encountered a dilemma. Does one use regular shampoo on a catboy, or the kind that was made specifically for a cat? The latter was available for use thanks to Kairi and her compulsive buying for their pet. In the end, Sora decided to use the normal shampoo on Dyne's scalp and the cat shampoo on his tail and cat ears. As for the rest of his pet's body, a washcloth made foamy with soap was thrust at him.

  
"Here. Use that for everything else."

  
With a sulky demeanor, Dyne took the washcloth and proceeded to scrub himself down with it. At least by obeying, he was shortening the time spent in the god-forsaken pit of death called a bathtub.

  
While his pet cleaned himself, Sora washed his own hair and eventually convinced himself to remove his clothes since Dyne was clearly too upset to care about anyone being naked. When they were both done with the soap, the showerhead was used for rinsing one last time. Then the water was shut off and allowed to drain away, signaling the end of the entire ordeal.

  
"See, that wasn't so bad. You can go now." Sora stepped out of the tub and snatched a towel to tie around his waist.

  
His pet, on the other hand, did not scramble to leave the bathroom. Instead, he continued to sit in silence with shoulders hunched and back facing his owner.

  
"Aw, don't be that way. Come on, the bath is over."

  
At Dyne's continued quiet rebellion, Sora let out a sigh. The boy walked back to the bathtub and bent down so that he could tuck his arms beneath his pet's legs. "If you stay in there, you'll turn into a prune," he murmured as he lifted Dyne out of the basin. The catboy's demeanor didn't change the entire time; he remained quiet and brooding as he was resettled on top of the toilet seat.

  
In the end, Sora figured he deserved the silent treatment, although he still felt justified over forcing a bath instead of allowing his pet to lick the mud away. A towel was fetched from the rack and used to rub down his unresponsive houseguest, who didn't move to help the drying of his hair, ears, torso and legs. Sora didn't go near the more private areas around his middle; that was left for his pet to deal with at his own leisure.

  
Finally, a bathrobe was tossed over Dyne's shoulders, and the feline boy was picked up and moved to the bed in the adjoining room where he would be able to air dry better. As soon as the Dyne was released, he flopped onto his side so that his back was facing Sora.

  
Unable to do anything about it, Sora shook his head before walking to the closet to procure a fresh pair of clothes. When he was done dressing, he turned back to his pet, which was still behaving petulant. "It could not have been that bad."

  
"I almost drowned," Dyne moaned into the mattress.

  
"You did not! I wouldn't have let you drown even if you could anyway."

  
"I've never been so abused." Dyne refused to listen to reason. His damp tail coiled over the front of his body so that he could clutch it like a kid hanging onto his favorite teddy bear.

  
Exasperated, Sora threw up his hands. Dyne was impossible to deal with. There was only one option left that could assuage his pet. Sora went to his book bag and retrieved the mouse shaped plushie that Kairi had stuffed in there earlier. Returning to the bedside, he leaned over the Dyne and dangled the present before his eyes. "Don't be mad. I won't give you too many baths as long as you stay clean, ok?"

  
A few moments passed in which it didn't seem that Sora was going to be forgiven, but then the toy was taken from his hands and cradled in a two-handed grasp. Dyne turned onto his back; the new supine position indicating that Sora had been accepted again. "Ok."

  
Pleased that his pet wasn't mad anymore, a smile stretched Sora's lips. Without a thought, he reached out and rubbed the space between the triangular tufts on Dyne's head. "If you're up to it, come around the kitchen. I'll sneak scraps to you under the table. Or you can wait and I'll just give you a plate later." With that, he ceased his petting and went to join his mother in the kitchen.

  
Left alone, Dyne's tail flicked with a little more life. After a few moments, he began to roll back and forth on Sora's bed, emitting a pleasured "rewr" as he chewed on the catnip-laden toy. He had just received his first voluntary petting from Sora ever since he showed the boy his true form. Obviously, it made him very happy.

  
Later on, a slightly damp, fuzzy yellow cat came into the kitchen carrying a plushie mouse.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


The student council meeting had run very late. They were arranging things for the homecoming dance as well as preparing the voting process for the homecoming queen and princesses. In reality, the upcoming student government elections should have been a priority, but everyone knew that Rufus was going to win again so not much attention was paid to that.

  
After everything was planned for the next three weeks, Riku was finally free to go home. Since he left his book bag in the boy's locker room, he detoured there to fetch it before leaving school grounds. While he was getting his things, Cid happened to wander by, and Riku called to the man to get his attention. "Hey coach. How did soccer tryouts go?"

  
Like all of the coaches in the school, Cid greeted the star athlete of Destiny Islands with a grin. Not for the first time, he fervently wished that Riku had stuck to soccer instead of jumping around from sport to sport every year. "Better than I expected. We got some real good kids this year. I think we're looking at another championship match."

  
"Sora was really good, wasn't he?" A touch of pride was evident in Riku's voice, which was not surprising since he considered himself to be the teacher of his best friend's skills.

  
"Pshaw, are you kidding me? He was like a minnow in a lake out there. Real good teamwork, passes and catches the ball like he's got a magnet for it, and shoots pretty good."

  
An indulgent, secretive smile passed over Riku's lips as he closed the locker door. "He's had lots of practice over the summer. We usually play something like soccer on the other island."

  
"Yeah. There was this one kid though, a real diamond in the rough. He's got a lot of edges to him, but I think with the proper training he can be as good as you."

  
This certainly peaked Riku's attention. There was actually someone in this school who could compare to him? His ego wanted to say that it was impossible. "Who?"

  
"That new kid, Dyne I think he's called. Real fancy footwork out there. It's unnecessary, but he's got a good handle on the ball. Hell if I should #$#@% complain, between him and Sora we got the championship beat."

  
The new kid? Riku found himself frowning at the thought. There was no way that the blondie hanging around Sora was just as good as him. He refused to believe that it was true; Cid had to be exaggerating.

  
Before he allowed himself to feel threatened, he would have to see this miracle for himself.  
  
  
  
**To be continued.**  
  
  



	5. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Author** : Cold Silence  
>  **E-Mail** : writer.coldsilence@gmail.com  
>  **Pairings** : Riku + Kairi + Sora, Sora x BHK. (BHK = Blonde Headed Kid from KH II)  
>  **Warnings** : AU, Yaoi, Het, Furs, Dubious Consent. OOC Roxas due to the fandom personality he was given before information on his character was released with KH2.  
>  **Webpage** : https://coldsilence.tumblr.com/post/433113072/index
> 
> **Special Note** : This fic has relationships with things that have tails. Also, this story was started before Roxas's name was revealed, hence why he is named differently in this fic. Don't worry though, this actually fits well with what I have planned for him in the end.  
>   
>   
> 

**Fuzzy Love**  
- _Chapter Five_ -  
  
  


Some pet owners are aware - and others are not - of the reverse training that occurs in the symbiotic relationship of master and pet. For instance, when Dyne climbed onto the mattress early in the morning, Sora no longer ignored or hid from him. Now, he simply rolled over and let the menace have his favorite spot on the bed. Although it meant sleeping beside an alien, it was well worth the extra half-hour of sleep it generated.

That was the first of the many subtle lessons learned in the time he spent with the yellow cat. In the mornings, he mindlessly picked the clothes Dyne would wear without prompting. Throughout the day, all of Dyne's meals were prepared and plentiful to make sure that he wasn't starving. When Sora dressed himself, the crown chain was always part of his attire because Dyne had told him that it would provide some measure of protection. All of these behaviors were now programmed into Sora's daily routine and if anything deviated from it then Sora felt off-centered. Even when Dyne wasn't near him, his eyes would roam in search of his pet until he was found.

Yet, despite how well Sora bent to Dyne's wishes, there had been incidents that confused the issue of who had the power in the relationship. The incident in the bathtub made clear that Sora had limits in tolerance that was dangerous to exceed. Only his close friends knew that he had a hidden speck of darkness that festered and gathered force like an endless black hole; a void that revealed itself on those rare occasions of frustrated anger. It was the reason Sora sometimes got into fights and why Riku chose to replace his father as the guiding figure in his life.

Sadly, Dyne had no clue how thin the ice was, and he would never forget the day he trampled all over it.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


By Thursday, everyone in the school accepted Dyne as their new classmate. The fabricated story of the lost luggage and his parents being old friends of Sora's was holding up. Even the principal trusted that the necessary papers and payments for the new student were simply taking a long time to arrive by mail. Luckily, since it was a small school, there were no objections from the faculty about making accommodations they would supposedly be paid for later.

On the other hand, most of the teachers were unimpressed by the new kid due to his tendency to sleep through every class. An exception to this was Cid, who was positively ecstatic to have such burgeoning talent on his team. In the end, whether they hated or loved Dyne, it seemed that he was going to get away with the scheme. Even Reno, despite all his blossoming thoughts of conspiracy, did not suspect that the new kid was freeloading his way through school.

But there was one person who didn't buy it.

And he definitely didn't like it.

After classes, Riku made plans with Sora to meet on the track field once his friend was finished with soccer practice. When the time came, Sora showed up sweaty and jubilant over another invigorating match, and accompanied by his new shadow, Dyne.

Seeing Dyne with Sora caused an ill feeling to pool in Riku's stomach, one that worsened upon confirming that they were still sharing the same clothes. Not once had his best friend complained about his situation, even though his home and his privacy were invaded by a houseguest that arrived without warning. Their closeness made no sense; in the four days that Riku got to know Dyne, he could see that the guy was nothing more than a huge pain in the ass.

Despite his misgivings, Riku's countenance reflected none of his thoughts. A well-practiced smile hid the tension simmering beneath his facade, and his voice conveyed nothing except friendly greeting. "Hey you two. How was soccer practice?"

"It was GREAT! Reno got hit by the ball three times!" Sora's answer was accompanied by an enthusiastic mimic of getting clonked against the side of the head by a ball.

"I swear those were accidents," though it was obvious by the smugness in Dyne's face that they were anything but.

These answers caused slight knitting of Riku's brows. He could see that Dyne was feeding into Sora's tendency to challenge any person who thought they were better than he was. Although this personality trait of Sora's was admirable and endearing at times, it was less than a good idea when it was applied to the Turks. "You should really watch who you piss off in this school. A mistake can make your life ten times more difficult."

For the first time since they arrived on the field, Dyne bothered to acknowledge Riku's presence. He turned towards the older boy wearing a mocking smile. "You're right Riku. Maybe if I try to be friends with Reno, I'll get to join the Turkey club and then I'll never have to mingle with the little people ever again. Sora, I designate you as my footstool."

"Yeah right!"

Riku's eyes narrowed as the two boys continued to banter with each other. Sora was completely oblivious to the fact that Dyne's words held an undertone meant for Riku's ears. How dare Dyne challenge the nature of his friendships and acquaintances without knowing the facts? Not only did this upstart practically declare that Riku was the bad guy, it was clear he was trying to take his place as Sora's best friend. However, if Dyne wanted to be that close to Sora so bad, then he would have to get past over a decade's worth of companionship, as well as gain the one important thing that glued Sora to Riku's pinky finger.

"You'll never be a Turk, not as long as you keep wearing Sora's clothes." Riku's comment made Sora pout indecisively. The brunette couldn't decide whether to feel dissed or complimented. Before he thought too much on it, Riku spared him the conundrum by extending a familiar challenge. "Want to race me around the track?"

"Give me a few minutes. Cid had us running around the field all day." Flopping down on the bleachers, Sora propped his elbows on his knees and tried to relax his overexerted muscles.

Despite the rejection, this was exactly what Riku wanted. The offer was then passed to Dyne and delivered with the smile that every boy from the islands wished they could wipe off Riku's face. "How about you? Think you got what it takes?"

Hook, line, and sinker; Dyne rose to the bait like a starved fish. He echoed Riku's grin with a cocky one of his own, and an intense dislike darkened his eyes. "Sure, I think I can take a few minutes to beat you."

"Those are tough words for someone who's never seen me run." It wasn't the first time that someone had said them to Riku either. With nothing but confidence, Riku led the way to the starting line and was trailed by his sneering opponent.

"This is kid's stuff," Dyne said loftily as he took a starting position beside Riku.

Any kid with a chip on their shoulders thought they could beat Riku. No one wanted to believe that there was such a thing as infallible perfection, which was personified in this handsome young man who was good at sports, academics, and accepted everywhere in his social life. What nobody knew was that the secret to his success sat in the bleachers, awaiting the outcome of the race.

When someone challenged Riku's prowess, Sora would watch with a shining grin born of pride at being the best friend of the guy who could own anyone on the island. Three years ago, that smile became extremely important, because it was a reminder of sweeter days when they would hang out with Sora's dad, who first taught them how to dream of adventure and play like it was real. That smile weathered them through grief, made them grow closer throughout their childhood and hopefully was there to stay throughout the changes of adolescence.

However, as the boys prepared to race around the track, there was no trace of that special look on Sora's face. Instead, there was worry, and it all centered on the determined blonde squatting behind the starting line.

Riku wanted to know what the hell was going on here. Hopefully the answers would be soon in coming. First, the new kid needed to be taught a lesson. At Riku's shout of "go," the two boys broke into a fast sprint. Experience made Riku check his pace in order to store energy and give him some time to gauge his opponent. Dyne was keeping up beside him, moving in a very graceful run that made it seem as if one step was floating after another. The blonde's attention was fixed on the path before them; his earlier boasting replaced by an air of seriousness.

This observation satisfied Riku. It meant that Dyne understood that there was more at stake in this race than just pride. Good, because he had no intentions of going easy on him. Halfway through the run, Riku added a burst of power that left the challenger straggling behind by three steps. Riku doubted that Dyne would be able to keep up at this new speed, but to his surprise, the gap was slowly shortening between them. At twenty yards they were again neck to neck, both evenly matched in their rhythmic breathing.

Up ahead, Sora had left the bleachers and walked to the edge of the finish line with a look of disbelief on his face. Besides himself, no one had ever been able to keep pace with Riku before; even Riku had to admit that the fact that Dyne was keeping up was nothing short of a miracle. For a moment, he wondered how Sora's face would look like if he lost just once. Would he be like the other people who wanted to see him fall off his pedestal and rejoice at his dethroning? Would he pity him and lose the respect he spent years earning? Would he be fickle, and choose someone else to look up to?

Riku's imagination would not supply an answer, and the unknown caused him more anxiety than anything else did. Best friends should be able to read each other easily, but more and more, he couldn't understand the things written in Sora's book. Were they growing apart, or simply growing older? There was no way to tell if it was one or both, and he didn't have the patience to wait things out. Time was running out for them; in two years Riku would be going to college and leaving his home behind. Although there were plans to keep Sora in his future, they wouldn't pan out if Sora's own interests cut Riku out of the picture.

However, there was one wild card that prevented that from happening and it was now put on display. Dyne may have been determined, but Riku had all the motivation. Cramping muscles did nothing to stop him from pouring his hopes and dreams into his legs, which carried him forth past the finish line. Victory was snatched by a yard's length.

When Dyne completed the circuit a split second later, he doubled over to catch his breath. His face contorted into an ugly grimace, expressing the words that were stalled by his heavy panting.

The reason for Dyne's sourness was not entirely due to his loss. Sora's attention was centered on the winner of the match, and he was congratulating Riku with a touch of wonder in his eyes. "That was great! I've never seen you run that fast before."

"Yeah." After regaining his air, Riku mustered up the strength to straighten from his hunched position. One of his hands threaded through the silvery strands of his hair in an effort to push them off his damp forehead. "I've been practicing."

"Running is for cowards," spat Dyne, much to Sora's bewilderment. Without another word, he stormed off the track with the humiliation of defeat burning like hot coals in his stomach. Dyne's loss meant that Riku got to keep the prize he'd been hogging for years: Sora's adulation, an emotion that was exploited for the explicit purpose of keeping Sora's heart tethered to his. Dyne found it sickening.

Unfortunately, Dyne's outburst erased any respect he could have earned from Riku for racing so well. "Humph. What a sore loser."

"I think I better go see if he's alright." Worried that his pet would do something rash while he was angry, Sora began to walk in the direction Dyne had left. Throughout the race, he had been worried that the catboy would forget about his tail again or lose his hat. Thank god neither of those things came to pass.

Oblivious to Sora's reasons for chasing after his houseguest, Riku stopped him by placing a firm hand on his shoulder. "Why should you have to? Let him deal with it."

"But.."

"Sora, I understand that he's staying at your house and all, but he's big enough to take care of himself and know when he's being a jerk."

"But he's totally new here." Although Sora pivoted to face Riku, he met his best friend's eyes only briefly. He felt like he was spouting bold-faced lies instead of the partial truths that they were. "Besides, everyone gets mad at you when they lose the first time. At least he'll feel better if he knows he's not the only one."

Riku took Sora's words into careful consideration. Was that the reason his best friend became close so quickly to Dyne? Because he identified with the brat? No, there was something else. Riku could feel it. He gave Sora a searching look, one that was discomforting in its intensity. "Just what does he have on you anyway?"

"What.. what do you mean.." Panic made Sora's eyes widen. This confrontation was exactly what he had been dreading since Dyne came into his life.

"Do you actually think I buy that dumb story about him being friends with your family? We both know that your mom and dad have never been to California. They used to say that if they were going to travel, it wouldn't be anywhere near a beach because there's plenty of that here."

"Uh--"

Anything Sora had to say was bowled over by Riku's tirade. "Who could they possibly know that lives way out there? What's going on Sora. There's a big secret, and I want to know what it is."

"...I..." Sora's bottom lip quaked. He hated keeping secrets from Riku, but he wasn't sure if it was a good idea to spill the truth. Seeing the way his best friend and Dyne reacted after the race confirmed that there was animosity between them. If the rivalry escalated, would Riku use the knowledge of who Dyne was and turn him in to the authorities? Sadly, Sora didn't know. Riku was just as hard to read nowadays, especially after he became friendly with the Turks. "...I can't. You'll freak out."

"What's there to freak out about?" As if fearing that Sora would bolt from their conversation, Riku clutched his friend's arm. "Just say it. I'm your best friend. If you're in some kind of trouble..."

Little did Riku know, he had Sora - up until he said the last sentence. Although his protectiveness was endearing, Sora was tired of being treated like a child. "I'm not in trouble. Just trust me ok? I know what I'm doing."

As usual, Riku doubted that Sora had a handle on things like he claimed. Nevertheless, after a long, thoughtful silence, he nodded his head in assent. After releasing Sora's arm, he collected his gym bag in stony silence.

The way Riku was acting made Sora anxious. "You're not mad at me, are you?"

Riku paused, and after a few moments he moved close enough to wrap one strong arm around Sora's shoulders. The suddenness of this rare show of affection alarmed his best friend and made him stumble into the embrace. "I'm not mad," he said softly. Riku decided that he was pushing Sora too much. It was the only thing that explained why his best friend was locking him out of his life. If that was the case, then he would back off for a while. Releasing the shoulders he had trapped, he began to walk away from the track field. "I'll see you around, Sora."

Dumbfounded, Sora watched Riku walk away. Although he believed that Riku wasn't angry, there was no mistaking the timbre of sadness that had been in his voice, and to Sora that was a thousand times worse than any amount of anger.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Dyne's temper tantrum took him to the boy's locker room. Upon arriving, he kicked over someone's stray water bottle and then sulkily leaned against the row of metal lockers. He couldn't believe that he lost to that human. Although warriors from Katina aren't trained to run, there was absolutely no excuse for the sorry display he made out there.

His glowering was interrupted by the sound of something scuffing the floor. Turning left, Dyne spotted a light haired Turk spying on him from behind the lockers. Realizing she was caught, the girl flashed a coquettish smile at him before stepping out from her hiding place.

How long had she been looking at him? One of Dyne's eyebrows raised in suspicion. "Isn't there a rule against voyeurism?"

"I was just passing by," murmured Elena in the most seductive voice that she could muster.

"In the boys locker room?"

"Alright, so maybe I wasn't passing by." If being caught in a lie bothered her, there was no sign of it. Instead, Elena smiled flirtatiously as she came closer to the boy. "Your name is Dyne."

"The one and only. Can't say I remember you from anywhere."

"I am Elena. I'm a 3rd year, so that would be why you don't see me in any of your classes. But you might have heard of me."

"Heh, sure have." Thanks to Kairi. She had bitterly told him all about Elena's teasing the morning Sora freaked out over his daily kisses. The nerve of that guy to say he had fleas!

Unfortunately, Elena took his affirmation as proof of her omnipotent popularity. The air of confident smugness that perpetually hovered around her became even thicker. "Good. Then I would like to extend to you an invitation to join me at the homecoming dance as my date. I'm sure that after being here for a few days, you've come to realize how hard it is to find somebody on this small island. Especially if you're new."

Homecoming dance? Oh, that mating ritual thing that the whole school was talking about. Dyne's main source of information concerning this event was Tidus, who wouldn't stop moaning and groaning over asking Yuna to go with him. He really didn't see what the big deal was. There wasn't even going to be any ritualistic bloodletting. "Thanks, but I'm not interested."

"Not interested?" Elena's tone suddenly lost warmth; dropping a couple degrees with displeasure. "You should be."

"Why? Are you that good in bed?"

Elena's eyes narrowed. "Parties are the biggest social events at this school. Who you turn up with can decide how far you climb the social ladder. Haven't you ever thought about it? Elections are coming up soon. You could become a member of the student council if enough people like you."

Now this perked Dyne's interest. It seemed that Elena was offering him the chance to be a Turk. Growing up in a war-torn world had taught Dyne to take every advantage of his enemy, therefore feigning interest in this topic was a matter of strategy. "Student council? That sounds up my alley. But it would be a waste of time if I end up being one of the peons."

"Vice-President," Elena offered while fingering the pearl necklace that rested over her blouse. In all honesty, she seriously doubted that Dyne could make it past class representative, but she believed that the more she dangled in front of his face, the more likely he would agree to go with her to the homecoming dance.

"Vice-President," murmured Dyne, careful to keep a devilish grin off his face. She was offering him that much just to go to some dumb dance with her? His ego was being very nicely stroked. Reaching up, he made sure his hat was secure on his head because he couldn't prevent his cat ears from pointing up with amusement. "Sorry, not interested. I'd rather be president, or it's no go. So if you'll excuse me," Dyne began to leave the premises, wearing a jackass of all smiles on his face.

When Dyne turned his back on her, Elena's congenial mask turned utterly sour. Although she was glaring at the catboy's head, half of her anger was directed at an absent Kairi. Obviously, she still held Dyne's interests because there was nothing else to explain this rejection. Desperation made Elena try one more time to make herself enticing. "I can give you anything you want."

Without turning to face her, Dyne paused at the exit of the locker room. "Prove it." Smirking, he left through the door.

"I will," Elena announced out loud, before stiffly waking through the backdoor she had entered through.

Meanwhile, three locker rows over from where the conversation had taken place, Tidus listened for any more voices. With a soft "whoa," he finished changing into his sandals before leaving the area himself. The gossip he just heard was too hot to hang onto, so he spilled the news to the first person he saw. This happened to be the hall monitor, who he caught meandering through the corridors.

"Wakka, you won't believe what I heard! You know that new kid, Dyne? He's going to be running for vice-president, and Elena is going to help him!"

"Ya? Yuz gotta be kidding. President eh."

Yuna, who happened to be passing by, overheard their conversation. Later on, when she had volleyball practice, the word was spread to her teammates.

"That boy who fought the Turks is running for president. I heard that Elena nominated him."

"That poor cutie! It'll be interesting to see someone else win for once though." Rikku, Yuna's friend, chuckled at the news before leaping to spike a ball that flew her way. It whizzed past the bleachers, where a boy named Duo was talking on his cell phone.

"Dude, I heard someone talk about the new kid running for president. Ain't that some shit? All the girl Turks are voting for him because they think he's hot. Yah. So what are you doing tonight, Heero?"

On and on, the rumor spread like wildfire throughout the small school, until finally........

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Rufus sat within the student lounge, sipping a warm cup of latte. The student newspaper was unfolded in front of him, and he checked every line of it to make sure that things were in order within the school.

Nobody knew that his father was the owner of Midgar, a very luxurious hotel chain that had its eye on Destiny Islands. They wanted to litter the beautiful island with luxurious condominiums and sprawling pools, but the residents took up the space needed for development. Half of them were old people who really didn't post a threat, whereas the rest of the population consisted of yuppie parents that wanted their children to have the experience of island living coupled with a good education. The latter was the reason why it was so difficult to encourage the settlers to sell their homes for a fair price.

Therefore, a plan had been hatched to further the interests of the Midgar Corporation. Since the good education was what attracted the parents, then the school was ripe for attack. Slowly but surely, the student council was making so called "bad decisions" that was shutting down special programs and ruining the institution's good name. The lack of uniforms and supplies for everyone else but the cheerleaders was no mistake. Considering that the principal was a dredlocked islander who trusted the students to run the school while he burned incense in his office and smoked "cigars," it was insanely easy to take over the high school and begin working towards Midgar's goal.

Once the parents realize how far the school is falling, they would move out of Destiny Islands to find a place with better education and leave the old people to deal with the pushy real estate men. It was a genius plot, and no one would suspect that a mere seventeen-year-old kid was in on it.

A knock on the lounge door interrupted Rufus's contemplation. The culprit was Tseng, whom he granted entrance to with the merest gesture of two fingers. His vice president walked in and leaned over so that he could speak quietly to his superior.

"The students are all saying that Dyne, the new kid, is going to bring down our organization and make himself president. He already has half the support of the school."

Suddenly, the newspaper in the president's hand crinkled loudly.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Oblivious to the happenings, Sora walked home with Dyne. At first, he thought it would be a good idea not to mention his pet's earlier outburst, but as time went on, he found that he simply could not hold it in any longer. "You didn't have to act that way."

"I know, it was stupid of me."

Sora was taken aback by how easily Dyne could admit he was wrong. Very rarely were his other friends able to bite their pride and admit things like that. "Riku is the best at practically everything he does. He beats everybody. I stopped getting mad at him for it a while ago." A cheeky smile flashed in fondness of his best friend.

Dyne was less than impressed. His displeasure at losing was displayed in a frown. "Don't you at least still try to beat him?"

"All the time." Linking his hands behind his head, Sora walked beside his companion with a thoughtful expression on his face. "He's the reason I always try to get better, at sports anyway. Though he's always one step ahead of me, I know for sure that I'll catch up sooner or later."

"I see." All too well. Riku was cleverer than Dyne thought if he was able to wrap Sora into that viscous cycle without him knowing any better.

Talking about Riku made Sora think about how his best friend had acted earlier. Those thoughts made him feel sad. Sora didn't like it when things were so complicated in his life. "Why do you act so different around him anyway?"

"I have my reasons."

"Don't start that again." Dyne and his secrets were very frustrating. Sora didn't want to deal with cryptic answers now, not when the hidden truth was causing his best friend pain. "Riku hasn't done anything to you. And besides, he knows that you're not really from California and it's really hurting him that I won't tell him what's really going on."

"So tell him then." Dyne didn't seem to particularly care either way. In fact, his expression was starting to look a little bored.

"Not until you guys start getting along. It's going to be really surprising for him, so I think he should at least get to know you first."

"Maybe I don't want to get along with him."

"Dyne." Sora noted that Dyne was tuning him out, so he grabbed a handful of his pet's shirt to get his attention. "This is my best friend we're talking about. If you can't do it for him, then do it for me."

"Your best friend," scoffed the blonde, who reached for the offensive hand wrinkling his clothes and removed it with a small amount of force. "He's got no right to ask you about your secrets. Especially since he's got a huge one of his own."

"What secret?" Sora gave Dyne a doubtful look. He honestly thought that the catboy was making everything up. If Riku had any big secrets, he would already know them, right?

"You can not possibly be this blind!" Dyne glared at Sora, who looked bewildered and completely ignorant of what his pet was insinuating. "You really don't know? Tch. Fine, find out the hard way. It's your fault if you didn't see it coming."

"See what coming? Dyne!"

Unfortunately, Dyne didn't see fit to wait for him. Sora was forced to speed walk after the blonde, who had resumed the trek towards their home. They were both surprised when for the second day in a row, the lights and smell of food in the house indicated the rare presence of Sora's mom. Without another word, Dyne morphed back into a cat to avoid being seen and to dodge his owner's questions.

Once again, Sora found himself rescuing spare clothes off the ground. After stuffing them into his book bag, his pet was lifted into the fold of his arms. "Don't think this means that the conversation is over. You can't hide forever like this." Dyne's ears tilted off to the sides. "Don't make that face."

Until there was time to talk again, they had to deal with the presence of Sora's mother. Sora walked to his front door and reached for the doorknob, expecting it to be unlocked as always. However, before he managed to touch it, the barrier swung open to reveal a complete stranger standing on the other side.

Obviously, it was someone from one of the islands; his tanned skin and weird spiky haircut were practically trademarks of the area. Loose khaki trousers worn with sandals and a button down white shirt did nothing to disguise the very muscular frame that was hidden beneath the fabric. The man looked surprised to see Sora on the porch, but that was replaced by a light smile. "You must be Sora."

"Yeah," responded the boy in a guarded voice. "Who are you?"

"I'm Cloud." Cloud stuck out his hand, which Sora accepted reluctantly. They shared a very firm shake. "Your mother has told me all about you."

Speak of the devil, Sora's mom finally made her appearance from behind Cloud. "Is he here? Oh good, you've already met!" Catching the confusion on her son's face, she gave the poor boy a reassuring grin. "I hope you don't mind, but I thought that I'd invite Cloud over to dinner. He even made vanilla pudding for us, which he should be good at after all that practice." A look was shared with the man, the kind that said there were secrets to the vanilla pudding that Sora was not allowed to know.

That's when it clicked. Cloud was his mom's boyfriend. Upon realizing this, Sora swore that the ground had just collapsed beneath him. Never, not once since his father death, had his mother brought any of her boyfriends to the house. He didn't even know how many people she'd dated or how long her relationship with Cloud has lasted. Sora separated himself from her social life by simply ignoring it. Now his mother had broken that wall by bringing this man into their home and parading him in front of Sora's face. He felt utterly betrayed.

For a few moments, the three of them just stood around awkwardly, until Sora's mom took the initiative to usher them in. "Don't just stand there, come in. We were just talking in the living room. Put away your things and come join us."

Completely dumbstruck, there was nothing Sora could do except obey. He strode to his bedroom in a daze and placed his book bag and cat on the floor. All thoughts of Riku and Dyne were completely forgotten in favor of the curve ball from left field that his mother had just flung at him. Muttering a quiet "I don't believe this," he went to join the couple in the den.

His arrival was barely noticed by the two lovebirds, who were leaning close together as they chuckled over an old yearbook. Sora seated himself on a lone chair facing their sofa and swallowed against the tightening of his throat. He didn't know if he would be able to stomach dinner.

"Sora, take a look a this. Cloud used to go to the same school as yours."

Numbly, Sora accepted the yearbook from his mother and peered at the open page. What he saw nearly made his mouth drop. It was a picture of a younger Cloud, dressed in formal slacks and a nice shirt. An evening coat slung across his shoulders completed the dapper image that he made. Unfortunately, this was not a prom picture. A caption beneath the photo read, "Student Council member Cloud Strife caught looking good in math class!"

Unbelievable. Cloud was a Turk. Although, since he graduated a couple years ago, that technically make him an ex-Turk. When Sora dragged his eyes away from the abomination in his hands, it was to find the adults looking at him expectantly for his opinion. "Student Council... that's great.."

"He was also on the swimming and lacrosse team," chirped his mother gaily.

Like anyone really cared about that. "What do you do now? It's been," Sora quickly checked the date of the yearbook, "eight years since you graduated."

Cloud smiled in a soft way that was clearly his trademark expression. In his head, Sora could see his mother falling for such a retarded feature and his stomach lurched with sickness. The man's answer came in a perfectly serene tone of voice. "Surf."

Oh. An ex-Turk and a surfer. This was getting better and better.

Perhaps Sora's mother saw the chagrin in her son's face because she expounded on her boyfriend's exploits for him. "That's not all he does. He's also a marine biologist. He does research in the islands every now and then. Surfing is just his passion."

"I have lots of passions," Cloud murmured, while his eyes strayed to the woman next to him.

Something began to buzz loudly. At first, Sora thought it was all in his head, which felt as if it were stuffed with cotton and doused with formaldehyde. However, his mother heard it too, and further recognized it as the timer of the oven. "I thought I set the oven timer for 20 minutes." With a bemused expression, she excused herself from the living room and left to go check on the food.

Unfortunately, without the presence of Sora's mother, the two males were forced to sit in awkward silence. After a few unbearable moments of the tense atmosphere, Cloud tried to break the ice between them. "You like school?"

No, because the Turks made it suck. Instead of saying this however, Sora murmured, "It's alright."

Cloud inclined his head in a slow nod, it was as if what Sora said was the most profound thing he'd ever heard. Sora didn't know which was worse, sitting quietly and feeling weird, or actually having to talk to this guy. Thankfully, he was saved from either option by a blur of yellow and white.

In an incredible fit of hyperactivity, his cat spelunked his way up the side of the couch, ran across the back of the sofa and leapt onto Cloud's head. The adult jumped in startled surprise, which caused a smile to appear on Sora's face. Just as Cloud batted at the creature on his head, Dyne leapt away and skittered to some hidden corner of the room.

"He scratched me!" Astonished, Cloud rubbed the stinging spots on his scalp.

"Sorry," muttered Sora, though the light upturn at the corners of his lips betrayed his amusement. "He gets a little crazy."

At this point, Sora's mother returned from the kitchen. In her hands was a tray filled with glasses of pink lemonade, which was lowered onto the center table for everyone to enjoy. "False alarm. There's still ten more minutes."

For the sake of appearances, Sora reached for one of the cool drinks. It soon became apparent that he didn't need to pretend to be thirsty, his mom and her guest were too busy talking to notice him.

After a few minutes of conversation, Cloud reached for a glass as well, but before he could grasp it the table rattled hard enough to topple the refreshments over. Pink juice splashed all over his khakis and sandals. "So much for looking cool," he muttered as he surveyed the mess his clothing had become.

Sora's mother was responding to the incident worse than Cloud had even though she had escaped unscathed. There was an apprehensive look on her face as she urged her boyfriend to let her do something about the mess. "Come with me to the kitchen, I'll get something to clean that with."

When the two adults left the room, Sora ducked his head under the center table. Sure enough, there was Dyne, flicking his tail in a manner that could only be translated as wicked.

"It was the funny the first time, but now you have to stop. I mean it."

In answer to the sternness in his master's voice, Dyne rumbled a coy "rrro." This earned the cat a glare from Sora, who stood up to rejoin the couple in the kitchen. He found them by the sink, where his mother was using a sponge to soak up the lemonade that was turning her boyfriend's pants into a strange shade of orange. "Sora, be a dear and set the table ok?"

Wordlessly, Sora did as he was told. By the time the task was done, Cloud's dignity was mostly restored and the food was ready. As his mother began to bring over steaming pans of mashed potatoes and pork chops, he took a seat at the table.

Likewise, Cloud picked a place to sit in, but the moment he touched his seat he flew back up with a yelp. At the stunned looks he received from his girlfriend and her son, he scooped up what had been on the chair and showed it to them: Sora's playing jacks. "Somebody forget these?"

"Sora, you're too old to be leaving your things lying around the house like that." Judging by the note of reproach in the voice of Sora's mother, it was clear that she didn't think highly of her son's role in the "accident" that just occurred.

"..Sorry.." Having to take the heat for Dyne's pranks was making Sora skirt the edges of annoyance and anger. He tried to spy the cat in the room, but there seemed to be no sign of the furry devil.

Despite everything, Sora's mom was determined to save the evening. Therefore, she directed all of their attention to the food. "Alright! Take a look boys, my masterpiece!" The aluminum foil was whisked off the pan, revealing a sight that would forever be ingrained in their minds.

Within the glass container, there were two mounds of mashed potatoes artistically arranged in the shape of breasts and garnished with a bit of parsley for nipples. A few inches further down was a second potato sculpture of a penis, which came complete with rounded testicles; indicative of the level of perfection the culprit wanted to achieve. Both pieces of work were located on the same "body" of pork chops.

Everyone stared.

Cloud was the first to break the silence. "Is this a hint?"

"I did not do this." A mortified look accompanied the words of Sora's mother. "Someone tampered with the food. Sora--"

"No." Absolutely not. Sora refused to take the blame for this. "I just got home, there's no way I could have done it."

"Oh, then I suppose it must have been the cat! Of course, why didn't I think of it earlier." Acid sarcasm pierced the tone of his mother's voice. Her oven mittens were taken off with rough, jerky movements caused by her anger.

"I didn't do it!" Indignation elevated the volume of Sora's denial. In his opinion, it couldn't have been more obvious that he had no part in this malicious prank. As soon as he got home, he'd spent the entire time with his mother or Cloud in the living room. When would he have time to mess with the food? It galled him that his mom skipped the facts and jumped to conclusions about his honesty.

Just when the hostilities were about to come to a boil, a loud sound startled the inhabitants of the table. Something had splattered against the window hard enough to rattle the glass but not shatter it. Similar noises were bombarding the side of the house, accompanied by the stifled giggling of young boys.

First to move was Cloud, who rose from his seat and went straight to the front door. Half a second later, Sora overcame his surprise and followed at the heels of the older man. They arrived at the porch just in time to see a bunch of kids dressed a little too nice for the weather running away. One of them yelled "Dyne for president!" just before ducking out of sight around the next corner.

Upon the disappearance of the vandals, a hard look flattened the handsome planes of Cloud's face, which was contrary to the look of wide-eyed horror on Sora's. After confirming that the coast was clear, they stepped out of the house to observe the damage. A mess of eggshells littered the lawn, their white carcasses resting beneath the places where the yolks had been spattered against the walls of the house. Nearly the entire front part of the house had been egged, and the unpleasant odor from the attack was beginning to overpower the rich scent of the abandoned dinner.

While they beheld the scene in mute silence, Sora's mother left her timid place at the porch to join them. Her loud gasp drew their attention, and Sora became worried. There was no telling how she would react to what had happened, especially since she was already angry from before.

It was completely unexpected when she began to sob brokenly. "Nessa?" Worried by her reaction, Cloud placed comforting arms around the woman's shoulders. "This is nothing, I'll just get the hose and clean everything before it stains."

"I'm sorry." Sora's mother was barely coherent because of her crying. She dabbed at her eyes and attempted to compose herself, but her efforts were continually spoiled by the fresh spill of her tears. "It's.. It's j-just that, Aki did the sh-shingles himself. He was so proud of them and he would just go on and on..."

Aki was the name of Sora's father. He hadn't heard his mother utter it in the past two years. Listening to it now brought a pang of unexpected grief, and Sora fought valiantly to keep it inside instead of displaying it as openly as his mom. After all, he was the only son and remaining male in the house. If he wasn't strong, then how would they survive?

However, his role as comforter was usurped by Cloud. The man gave Sora's mother a tight squeeze, and she fit herself into his embrace with the ease of familiarity. Cloud caught Sora's eyes from over her shoulder. "You should go to your room," he suggested in a soft, yet firm voice.

At first, Sora was shocked that this stranger thought he had the authority to dismiss him like that. Then fury made his hands clench, but in the interests of his mother, he did as he was told since it was obvious that Cloud could do a better job of being there for her. A feeling close to hate was directed to the man, as well as to those idiot Turks and Dyne for causing all of the day's events to happen in the first place.

When Sora walked into his room, he found his pet sitting on the windowsill above his bed, where he had doubtlessly watched the events outside unfold. Currently, Dyne was in the guise of a nude boy, and despite how bad the situation had become, only the tilt of a feline ear was spared for Sora's entrance.

Perhaps this lack of complete attention was a mistake, because Sora's tone was frosty when he addressed the catboy. "Dyne. For president."

Despite the flat accusation, Dyne did not take his eyes off the couple on the lawn. In fact, he sounded a little indignant. "Don't look at me, I didn't tell them I was going to be president. It must have been Elena."

"You were talking to Elena? She's a Turk!" Anger propelled Sora forwards, making him stride quickly towards his pet's location. The fast approach of his footsteps finally snagged Dyne's attention, who turned around just as Sora started yelling again. "You'd think that after meeting Reno you'd know that they were bad news by now!"

"I do. I'm not stupid." Dyne displayed his displeasure at Sora's agitation by flicking the tip of his tail repeatedly. "She came to me."

"Then you should have told her to go away."

"It's just egg Sora. Like Cloud said, it'll come right off the house."

"No, this isn't just about that. You were acting like an ass all afternoon --"

Impressive, this was the first time Dyne had heard his master curse. He was willing to bet that all the kids that had Cid as a coach quietly internalized his foul language subconsciously. "By the time you told me to cut it out, it was already too late to fix the food. Besides, you didn't like your Alpha's chosen mate, so I was going to get rid of him for you."

"It's none of your business! That's mom's boyfriend and if that's who she wants then there's nothing anybody can do about it."

At this point, Dyne hopped off the windowsill; tail now lashing back and forth. "It's my business if I make it my business. Unlike you Sora, when things don't go the way I want I don't just ignore them and hope they go away. If that human makes you unhappy, then I'm going to do something about it."

"My mom works two jobs, did you know that? Do you even understand what that means? She has to because my dad isn't here anymore to make ends meet. Going out to see her boyfriends is the only thing that makes her happy anymore. Things were fine, they were fine!" Even if the house seemed a little emptier, even if they couldn't really consider themselves much of a family anymore, it was livable, and that was all that mattered to Sora. However, this delicate balance had been upset by Dyne's existence, which was accelerating the unraveling of the things he once considered constants in his life. "But you, you made mom cry!"

Dyne had no apologies. With his arms folded across his bare chest, he very cruelly put forth the observation he'd been hinting at for days. "What use is a mother who's never there?"

Sora's vision suddenly went blurry, but he barely registered it as he lunged for the catboy's neck. Dyne nimbly danced aside, but did not predict the secondary grab for his tail. A screech of pain accompanied the vicious yank of his appendage, followed by the instantaneous reflex of slashing at Sora with his nails.

Sadly, it had little effect his master, who didn't so much as flinch when the skin beneath his left eye tore open. Blood fell from the trio of finger-shaped cuts like red tears, a sight that convinced Dyne to reign in his actions and emotions before he hurt Sora even more. Instead, his efforts became concentrated on escape, which became difficult when Sora managed to grapple his waist.

Sora had learned from the bathtub incident that wrapping Dyne's tail around his wrist was an excellent way to keep him still. He bodily lifted the struggling catboy from the floor, sat down on the edge of the bed and placed Dyne stomach first over his lap.

The catboy shouted obscenities when fistfuls of his blonde hair were grabbed in order to force his face down. "Son of a bitch -- Sora stop! You're out of control! LET GO OF ME!"

"You're the one who's been out of control since I found you!" Once Dyne was completely doubled over, Sora lifted the palm entangled with his pet's tail high in the air. "This is for making my mom cry!"

There was a resounding smack, one that made Dyne tense from head to tail in complete outrage. Incredulous disbelief at the fact that he'd just been spanked widened his eyes, but the reality of it stung like the handprint now etched on his butt. "You asshole! I am not a kitten!"

"Then stop acting like one!"

Another merciless strike made Dyne yell with scandalized rage. He pawed at the ground to drag himself away, but pain from his scalp reminded him that Sora still had a hand entangled in his hair. "You should talk you stupid human! You waste your life messing around with these things--" Dyne didn't have the words to encompass all of Sora's room. His toys, his mobiles, his weapons; all those childhood fantasies that took him away from the truth of growing up that was unfolding around him. "You think this makes you a man?"

"Shut up!"

All attempts at reasoning were abandoned with the next heavy-handed smack. An involuntary mewl of pleading tore from Dyne's throat. "Alright alright! I've been a bad kitty - ow! - I'm sorry - meow! - I'll be quiet -- AH Sora please!"

"Say sorry for my mom! And for Riku, and, and for my dad!" Sora's throat tightened, and his vision became a curtain of unshed tears. His face twisted in anguish upon realizing that he'd just asked his pet to apologize to his dead father. What was he doing? It wasn't Dyne's fault that things have been changing.

His breaking point was reached when he realized that there was no one he could turn to. Riku only lectured him about growing up and letting go, and Kairi already had so many problems of her own with Elena. Sora felt so alone, and the feeling became a heavy ball in his chest that dragged him down until he was slumped over Dyne's back. The salty tears falling from his eyes made his cuts come alive with sharp pain, though it was no match for the emotional one searing inside. Quiet sobs shook him as he cried into the skin of his pet.

"Sora?" Due to his position, it was difficult for Dyne to look over his shoulder at the crying boy. So he let himself dangle, feeling miserable and humiliated at the way he'd let Sora spank him. He was consciously aware that he'd grown attached to the human, but he never dreamed that his affections would be tested in this manner. In the end though, he supposed he deserved some of it for behaving the way he did.

When Sora finally loosened his grip on Dyne's tail, the catboy carefully unraveled it from his master's wrist and slid out of the lax grip on his hair. Movements caused Dyne's ass to hurt, and he mewled in distress at the sensation. Nevertheless, despite his discomfort he got himself on his knees and tentatively peered in Sora's face.

"Hey. No more of that ok? We're both assholes. That makes us even."

Even so, Sora was too ashamed of his recent actions to look at Dyne. His wet, clumped lashes were a veil to the watery blue eyes hidden beneath. Sora's voice fluttered with the struggle of speaking with constricted air. "I'm sorry."

In answer, something moist and raspy laved the cuts on Sora's cheek. His eyes opened slightly while Dyne continued to lick the wounds and signs of sadness away. Sora was too filled with grief to put too much thought into his pet's actions, so it continued unhindered. Both sides of his face were cleansed as well as the bottom of his chin. The ministrations were finished with a final curl of Dyne's pink tongue against the side of Sora's lip.

Then the catboy leaned forwards and brought their noses together so that they touched. He lifted a hand to gently press against Sora's uninjured cheek. "Man, you've got some crazy baggage."

If these were words of comfort, they proved to be dysfunctional because they had the opposite effect of making Sora feel worse. The boy sniffled and came to accept that maybe he really hadn't finished mourning for his father.

"But don't feel bad. My sire passed a long time ago too."

Dyne's admission lifted Sora out of his haze. He searched for the truth of those words in Dyne's face, which was so close that he could feel the other's breath above his lip. "You mean.. your dad too..?"

Well aware of which form Sora felt safest receiving comfort from, a sad smile was given in response before Dyne returned to his more feline body. When the light of the transformation faded, Sora was left with a yellow cat that was rubbing its face soothingly against his chest. He gladly accepted this change and wrapped his arms around his pet to pull him close.

If what Dyne said was true, then he understood Sora better than any of his friends. With the touch of soft fur against his face, Sora felt his sadness spread thin and become bearable as the burden was shared.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Sometime that night, Sora's mother crept into the bedroom. She found her son lying on the bed, curled tightly around the yellow cat tangled in his arms. The feline opened one lazy eye at her as she settled on the edge of the bed and reached over to pet the top of Sora's head. Although his eyes were closed, she knew him well enough to detect that he wasn't really asleep.

"Sora, I'm sorry for the way I acted. I shouldn't have treated you the way I did."

The note of apology in her voice didn't make Sora feel better. He figured that after spending some time with Cloud, his mom was willing to forgive murder.

"And as for tonight, it was my mistake for not being straight with you from the start. I had this silly idea in my head that you and Cloud would fit together like two puzzle pieces." A sigh followed her words. Sora had yet to acknowledge that she was there, but the woman continued nonetheless. "I brought him here to meet you because I thought it would be a good idea for him to move in with us. I could spend more time at home that way, you know? We can have real dinners every day."

Not an eyelash batted was batted on her behalf. Sora was entirely too good at pretending that he was asleep, but his mother knew better. "Just think about it, ok?" One last pat was delivered to Sora's spiky hair, and then his mother left the room.

After all that Sora had been through, this news fell like a drop in an ocean. Later on though, someone had to bring to light that if Cloud moved into the house, then it was going to become ten times harder to hide Dyne's presence. For now though, Sora felt too numb to care, and his pet really couldn't do more than shut his eyes quietly and shout the word FUCK in his head.

**To be continued.**


	6. Chapter Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Author** : Cold Silence  
>  **E-Mail** : writer.coldsilence@gmail.com  
>  **Pairings** : Riku + Kairi + Sora, Sora x BHK. (BHK = Blonde Headed Kid from KH II)  
>  **Warnings** : AU, Yaoi, Het, Furs, Dubious Consent. OOC Roxas due to the fandom personality he was given before information on his character was released with KH2.  
>  **Webpage** : https://coldsilence.tumblr.com/post/433113072/index
> 
> **Special Note** : This fic has relationships with things that have tails. Also, this story was started before Roxas's name was revealed, hence why he is named differently in this fic. Don't worry though, this actually fits well with what I have planned for him in the end.  
>   
>   
> 

**Fuzzy Love**  
- _Chapter Six_ -  
  


Although Sora felt a little congested, he was relatively stable when he awoke Friday morning. Softness and warmth radiated beneath his fingertips, which were lightly draped over his cat's body. The feline had made itself into a tight fuzzball close to his chest and left one ear tilted to listen for his stirrings.

For once, Dyne didn't try to wake Sora up since their current position produced the smells and heat that he craved in the early hours of the morning. When he was injured and unable to follow Sora's ventures out of the house, these residual sensations of his master's presence had always given him a sense of security. Nowadays they were hardly separate, therefore it was kitten-like to cling to that habit, but there was no one on the planet to call Dyne on it. Like Sora, he was at the eve of his adolescence, yet he would find himself regressing to imprinting-type behavior similar to how his owner liked to cling to his childhood games and dreams. Even now, despite how silly he knew it was, Dyne had made up his mind to make Sora turn on his side every morning so that they could always cuddle together like this.

Both of them seemed to have more in common than they initially thought. Each of them had lost someone important to them, and after all the tears and outbursts of the night before they became numb to whatever differences or rules governed their relationship up to that point. They were now a little closer, which explained the slow, gentle stroking that Sora's fingers were brushing against Dyne's neck. Although he was awake, Sora kept his eyes closed and was content to let this peaceful moment linger before the day began and shit inevitably hit the fan.

In less than a week, they had dug themselves a deep hole with a shovel of lies that threatened to crumble around them at any moment. However, there were no regrets. The previous night, Sora rediscovered how much Dyne's presence had uplifted him before he found out that his cat was an alien. He realized that he missed their innocent friendship, and through his tender touches he reconnected with that old feeling.

Nothing soothed the heart like the unconditional loyalty and caring of a pet. As Dyne had tried to stress many times before, he was still the same cat; therefore their special connection would linger even if he was a humanoid capable of higher thought and feeling. The reason he revealed his alternative form was because he thought that meeting Sora as an equal would bring them closer, and the thought of that excited him and brought him happiness.

Since this was still Dyne's wish, the sweet lull of the morning would not be spent entirely as a cat. Beneath Sora's hands, the warm fur changed texture, becoming smooth blonde hair that interspersed between his fingers. As if he expected it, the transformation did not bother Sora, and he continued his delicate touches against the cream colored skin of Dyne's neck.

Pleased with the ease that Sora accepted the change of his form, a purr resonated within Dyne's body in gratitude. Not one to let such compliance go to waste, he crept his tail beneath the blankets and draped it possessively over his bedmate's waist.

Feeling fuzz near his navel, Sora was coaxed into lifting his eyelids and letting the world filter in. He was greeted by the eager sight of his pet, who looked wide-awake and unusually happy for someone who'd recently been spanked.

Dyne's cheerful smile was only slightly offset by the teasing lilt in his voice. "Good morning honey~."

"Un." A mild grunt was all Sora could spare to Dyne's cajoling. His eyes came to a close once more, sleepiness slurring his answer. "What time izzit?"

"Who cares? Let's stay home from school today. It's not like either of us pay attention when we're there anyway." Why end the nice time they were having? Dyne would much rather spend the day lazing around the bed than sleeping through lectures about outdated theories or reading material that he had memorized in Katina a long time ago.

Unfortunately, Sora didn't share the same sentiment. Removing his hand from his pet, he began to untangle himself from the blankets with a grumpy face. "No, I don't want to stay here." His efforts to free himself paused when he noticed the tail resting on his waist. Sora tried to peel it away, but every time the appendage was set aside, Dyne simply returned it to the same spot. Sadly, his drowsiness made him too dumb to think of ways to deal with his pet's antics.

As for refusing to stay home, it was easy to tell that Sora just didn't want to stick around his mom or Cloud. Although the previous day's events had been nothing short of a fiasco, Dyne thought that what was waiting for them at school was going to be worse. "Won't going out be dangerous?"

"I'm not scared of Turks." With a small frown, Sora sat up faster than his blood could keep up with his head. The resulting vertigo actually helped clear his mind, but with the lifting of the fog came the memories of the night before. An unhappy turn of his pouted lips joined his silent thoughts.

"But you're scared of your mother?" Unwilling to let Sora go so easily, Dyne coiled his tail completely around the boy's waist. The very tip of the makeshift yellow rope brushed up and down against the small of the boy's back. "I think she's easier to deal with. Just tell her that you don't want ex-Turk surfers in your house."

Sora shook his head in the negative. "I'm standing by what I said yesterday. It's her business, and if she wants her boyfriend to move in, then let her. Besides, when we go to school we can tell everyone that you're not running for president and then everything will be ok again."

Incredulous, Dyne stared at Sora as if he was the alien in the room. "You can't be serious. Even though you hate that guy, you're just going to let him move in? Even if he'll probably blow our cover and get us both in a lot of trouble?" Dyne was deeply disapproving of such a bad tactical maneuver, and the triangular tufts of his ears flattened with displeasure. "Aren't you the most noble bastard. If you want to go along with such a bad decision, then I think I just might get the urge to run for president for real."

"You're crazy!"

"Whatever happened to not being afraid of the Turks?"

"You'll never win." Therefore, it would be a waste of time. Annoyed at the mere mention of such a stupid idea, Sora crawled off the bed, finally forcing Dyne's tail to uncurl from his waist.

"Sure I can. I'm charismatic. I've got leadership potential. I'm hot. You're so lucky Sora, you've got me all to yourself." That last sentence was accentuated with a wicked grin and a slinky curl of Dyne's tail above his head.

Sora flashed an odd look over his shoulder at the cocky blonde, followed by a sound of disgust. Dyne's ego was bigger than his room. He then vanished into the bathroom for his daily shower, leaving his pet to bask in his own bigheadedness alone.

Despite that reaction, Dyne smiled impishly to himself. Suddenly feeling playful, he leapt off the bed to check if the bathroom door was locked. Perhaps Sora got careless and left it open, which would allow the naughty kitty to steal his clothes and make him wander around naked.

On his way to the bathroom, one of the models hanging from the ceiling teased at Dyne's senses. Like most cats faced with a dangling object, he couldn't resist leaping up and batting at it. The model ship was rocked back and forth on its string, causing the little plushies sitting inside of it to fall down. In addition to the soft thuds of the sand filled bags hitting the floor, something metallic clattered noisily to the ground.

Curious, Dyne squatted to inspect what it was. The object was triangular and painted with blue lacquer, as well as decorated with swirls and dots produced by a whiteout pen. The words "sTaR mAp" had been printed on one of its four sides. Sora had such a cute imagination.

The thought of Sora creating the "sTaR mAp" made the blonde smile, but then the expression froze on his face. Using one of his long fingernails, he scratched at the blue lacquer until it flaked away to reveal the true color of the object beneath: silver. His faltering grin disappeared completely. It was a piece of his ship.

Dyne remembered his last panicked moments on his ship crystal clear. He'd just come out of warp when this planet's gravity seized possession of his spacecraft. The engines were too weak to resist its pull, so he was forced to make an emergency landing. A picture of the planet was called up on the viewscreen to pinpoint a place to land, and his mouth had dropped open upon seeing the insane amount of water that covered nearly 2/3rds of its surface.

The thought of drowning terrified Dyne more than crashing. Unfortunately, the odds were against him that day. His ship emerged from warp in the middle of a raging meteor storm, and one of the meteorites damaged his retrorockets. When he tried to use them to slow the fall of the ship, they blew up. The only other option was to angle the craft bottom-first and engage the thrusters to slow the descent. It worked, but he entered the atmosphere at a bad angle, causing his ship to heat up like a live volcano and glow bright as a falling star.

Only one option was left for survival. In hopes of eventually leaving this excessively liquid planet, Dyne gave the computer one last command before sealing himself into an escape pod: Disassemble. Smaller objects had more chances of surviving an impact, and thankfully his ship had the ability to come apart like a jigsaw puzzle. With the advanced technology from his planet, the pieces could be easily assembled back together at a later date.

However, it never obeyed the final instruction, at least not while he was still trapped on the ship. The stupid pod never deployed either, and he was forced to ride out that horrible crash to its very end. It was just his luck that he ended up on that tiny island; although he would have preferred one of the larger landmasses at least he would not be detected in such a desolate place. Sadly, that was about the extent of Dyne's fortune, because the impact of the crash landing had been strong enough to overcome the locks on the pod and send him flying into oblivion.

Looking back, disassembling the ship had been a dumb idea. Most of the pieces would have fallen into the ocean anyway. Though now that Dyne thought about it, he realized that he never asked Sora if he had been found outside or within the remains of his ship. If his body had been found among the trees, then his final command must have worked after all. That meant that his spacecraft did disassemble at the very last moment of the crash and that the majority of its parts were still on that island. In fact, the very unit needed to put everything back together was right there in his hands.

But, if his ship was mostly intact, even if it was still in pieces, that also meant..

That he could still be tracked.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


On the way to school, Sora met up with his closest friends as usual. He told them about the eggs that had been thrown at his house but left out every other detail concerning that evening. Both of his confidants were outraged at the Turks, especially Riku, who gave Dyne a look so dark that it was a wonder the alien didn't spontaneously combust on the spot. It was obvious whom Riku blamed for the vandalism of the Sora's house.

When they reached the school, Riku excused himself from the group and left at a brusque stride in search of Rufus Shinra. As for the remaining three teens, they found themselves at the center of the school's attention thanks to a sudden spike in Dyne's popularity. Random people kept approaching the blonde to ask about the truth of the rumors they have been hearing, and to Sora's horror, Dyne would answer that yes, he was definitely running for president. Some of the students wished him luck, others wanted to know if he'd written his will yet.

In an attempt to escape the quiet whispers around them, the teens entered the school building. Unfortunately, they only made it about three steps before an extremely excited Selphie accosted Dyne. Even though his bid for presidency had started out as a rumor, already she had decorated herself with "Vote for Dyne" pins that had been enthusiastically made overnight. "Dyne!!! I heard the news! Congratulations, you have my vote 100%! I'll take you over stuck up Rufus any day! You won't have to worry about a thing, because I will be your publicist. Pins, fliers, speeches, anything! Oh please oh please oh please let me help you!!"

Dyne was unable to prevent smirking at the flat look on Sora's face. He accepted Selphie's offer graciously. "Sure, I'd love for you to be my publicist."

"YES!!" Selphie's squeal upon being accepted as Dyne's publicist made several people turn in their direction. "Diney, you are the answer to all of our prayers! Kairi, come here. I have to talk to you!"

Before Kairi could protest, Selphie kidnapped her friend and dragged her away from the boys. While on the way to their lockers, she spoke excitedly about what was on her mind. "Kairi, this is your big chance! We are talking the toppling of a regime here! If Dyne becomes president, then we won't have to worry about Turks anymore."

"I seriously doubt that. It's not like they can just be kicked out of school." Sure, the Turks wouldn't have power, but they would still be around. They could always just win seats at the student council the following year. Besides, Kairi had doubts as to the chances of Dyne winning the presidency. He was new to the school, after all.

"Aren't you reading between the lines here?" Selphie dramatically placed her hands on Kairi's shoulders and looked straight into her eyes. "You are friends with Dyne. If Dyne becomes president, you'll become popular. If you are popular, then people will vote for you to be homecoming princess. If you ask Dyne to the dance right now, you'll be halfway there already."

Of all the cockamamy schemes Selphie had ever cooked up, this one took the proverbial cake. For the first time, Kairi began to question her friend's sanity. Sure, Dyne was a nice guy, but only when he wasn't being lewd or saying weird things. At times, he even acted as if he expected Kairi to be on a more intimate level with him than they really were. "No. No no no nooo I don't want to go to the dance with Dyne. I barely even know him!"

"So what? It's not like you can't just dump him at the dance and snag the guy you really want. At least be in on his campaign, it'll make you look good in his eyes! Don't you want to show up Elena? I heard she asked him out and got turned down. Can you think of any better way to give her a good slap on the face? Kaaaaaairi. See the light! At least think about it."

Obviously, Selphie was going to keep pushing the topic until some kind of acceptance was acquiesced. Kairi expelled a long-suffering sigh. "Alright. I'll think about it."

"Trust me, good things are going to come out of this!" Delighted, Selphie practically skipped the rest of the way to their lockers.

Once they reached their destination, Kairi went through the usual motions of undoing her combination lock so that the books for her morning classes could be fetched. However, when the metal door was pulled open, a mountain of silicone breast implants avalanched out of her locker. People in the hallway stopped their milling to stare at the pile of jellies littering the ground. Uncontrollable snickering at the obvious prank began to echo throughout the corridor.

Instead of mortification, a stoic look planted itself on Kairi's face. Beside her, Selphie could only stare in shock, unable to say anything that would make this situation better. Thankfully, there was no need to, for Kairi closed her locker calmly and spoke first. "I'll make the fliers. When I go home, I'm going to get my camera so we can take a good picture of Dyne. You just make sure that there's enough buttons for everyone in the school."

And so, Kairi saw the light, as distorted as it looked when seen through a tomato-shaped plastic boob.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Meanwhile, the pleasant atmosphere that Rufus had been enjoying in the student lounge was disrupted by a loud bang. The door had been flung open, and Tseng was shoved through it hard enough to make him stumble. Behind him was Riku, who strode uncontested into the room with a narrowed look that made his olivine eyes appear as mere slits.

Unperturbed by the situation, Rufus lowered his agenda for the day with an air of indifference. "I don't believe you have an appointment."

"Shut up." With his well-toned muscles and taller stature, Riku was quite an imposing figure when compared to the lean bodied president sitting before him. "You told me that if I hung around you Turkeys, you would call Reno off Sora. Not only has he been picking on him again, but you sent people to his house. This was not part of our agreement."

Rufus did not openly sigh. To maintain his power over the school, he had to brush shoulders with bull headed jocks all the time. Since Riku was the star athlete of the school, being friends with him gave Rufus and the rest of the Turks the bump in popularity needed to always win during student council elections. Using Riku for this purpose started two years ago, when Sora had a fatal accident concerning soda and a certain revenge freak's shoes. "We've been through this already. Reno is not the only person who starts fights. Your friend has been a little "argumentative" lately. I can't be on top of every single little infraction, especially if it's his big mouth causing it."

"That doesn't explain why his house was egged."

"Oh," responded the president thoughtfully. Folding his hands behind his back, he turned to face the window, which offered a panoramic view of students chatting outside. "A most unfortunate coincidence. It was a message to be sent to the new kid. According to my sources, he's looking to be president."

"I don't care what the circumstances are, you leave Sora out of it. Otherwise, I quit being your tagalong. This deal is off."

Before Riku could storm back out of the room, Rufus stalled his movement by replying smoothly, "That wouldn't be the wisest of choices. There would be nothing left to prevent anything... unpleasant from happening to your friend."

"You think?" Riku sneered at the back of the overdressed teenager. "Maybe I might decide to run for vice-president. I'm sure Dyne would feel better if he wasn't running solo."

Slowly, Rufus turned away from the window and settled a dangerous, warning look on the angry boy. "I wouldn't advise that. After all, my father might think of downsizing soon, and we wouldn't want anyone's mother to be out of a job."

Anger caused the fists clenched at Riku's side to shake. This was the reason why he couldn't just settle things with Rufus or his cronies by force. His mother earned a lucrative salary in the employment of the Midgar hotel chain. A false move on his part could get her fired, and then all his dreams of college and moving away from the islands would be dashed by poverty. Sadly, his father's job as a fisherman barely earned any money; without his mom's income they would be forever stuck on Destiny Islands living a life of mediocrity.

"Of course, I didn't make it to my current position by being uncompromising." A chilly smile graced Rufus's lips. "Stay in our camp, and this won't be taken to your dear Sora's house. The battlegrounds will be here in school."

"Fine," uttered Riku in a tight voice, before stiffly walking out of the room. Tseng was roughly shoved once more on his way out of the door.

Obviously used to being knocked around, Tseng merely tidied his tie and collar with a blank expression. "He's a wild card."

Rufus waved a dismissive gesture at his vice-president. He picked up his agenda once more and scanned the list of things he needed done to prevent Dyne from running for presidency. Then he went to work crossing out the tasks that could no longer be executed thanks to the verbal contract he made with Riku. "When you know the weakness, you can tame any beast."

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


As expected, school became a battleground for the teenagers supporting Dyne's candidacy. Throughout the following week, Kairi, Selphie and Dyne were the victims of dozens of malicious pranks. Paranoia made them change their combination locks frequently and practice extra caution around chairs, doorways, food, and when passing Turks in the hallway. It was hell, but the ridicule they experienced only gave them more impetus to go on.

At first, Sora tried to convince Dyne to give up his crazy campaign, but as long as Cloud was allowed to stay in the house then the alien remained adamant about his own cause. Both of them were too stubborn to throw in the flag, so the surfer remained moved in and school continued to be a hellhole. In time though, Sora was unable to keep watching his friends suffer and eventually started helping Dyne too. Even if it was a bad idea, he couldn't just stand by and let everyone go through the ordeal themselves. Once, he tried to recruit Riku's help, but he received such a hurtful rejection that he never brought the topic up again. The only conclusion he could draw about his best friend's anger was that he simply hated Dyne that much.

On top of that, it was impossible to tell if their efforts were making any progress. All of the students either kept quiet about who they were voting for or openly declared that they were for Rufus. Anyone admitting that they supported Dyne put themselves at risk for terrible practical jokes. If it weren't for the fact that the voting was anonymous and moderated by the faculty of the school, there would have been no way that Dyne could possibly win.

At home, things weren't as bad, but the changes that Cloud brought with him were glaringly obvious to anyone who had ever stepped foot into the house before the surfer moved in. The man's pictures now hung on the walls and his clothes gained a permanent space next to the feminine fabrics within his girlfriend's closet. In the spare bathroom, the medicine cabinets were filled with his shaving things and his toothbrush sat proudly inside a cup on the sink. Strange gadgets pertaining to his work as a marine biologist were stored away inside the tool shed, as well as...... his surfboard. Dyne offered to pee on it, but Sora wouldn't go for the idea.

Some nights, Sora's mother and her boyfriend would spend the evening on a boat that Cloud owned or disappeared for long stays at the beach. Perhaps their nightly absence was an attempt to ease the shock of Cloud moving into the house for Sora, but it didn't take a genius to guess what they were also doing on their little getaways. However, Sora's mom did keep her promise and cooked real dinner everyday. Eating at the dining room table was kind of nice for Sora, even if he had to share the experience with an ex-Turk surfer.

On the bright side, hiding Dyne wasn't as hard as they initially thought. All the alien had to do was spend more time as a cat. Nobody ever suspected that the loyal yellow feline that trotted at Sora's heels or curled in his lap at every opportune moment was anything more than it appeared to be. Since the night of their fight, Sora eased back into being the doting owner that he used to be and treated his pet as preciously as when they first met. At times though, he preferred it when his mother and Cloud were gone; that way Dyne could shapeshift back into humanoid form and they could have normal conversations again.

Their biggest troubles only happened in the morning. During that time, Cloud was awake and wandering through the house in preparation for work or spending time at the beach. As a result, Dyne had to dress up very early and quickly and leave through the window. Usually he met up with Kairi a block away and walked with her back to the house, which made it look as if he arrived with her everyday. Thanks to the fact that Kairi was helping Dyne with his presidential campaign, she assumed that Dyne was waiting for her every morning because he wanted to discuss their daily plan of action for usurping the president's power.

With all the new things going on, it was no wonder that sometimes things felt a little odd for Sora. However, nothing was as weird as the way Dyne's behavior had changed lately. It started subtly after the night Sora had spanked him; something neither of them ever openly talked about. Asides from the fact that Dyne was running for student council, he began to obey Sora on other things almost perfectly. He never hogged the bed anymore, he didn't fool Kairi in his cat form in hopes of getting presents or kisses, and his occasional off-color remarks were practically non-existent. Most alarming of all, he was actually NICE to Riku. Sadly, that wasn't enough to win Riku over. He believed that Dyne was only trying to win his vote.

Sora developed a theory. Perhaps his pet was being the "good kitty" he claimed he would be back when he was being spanked. Whether it was true or not, Sora often felt guilty about what he did whenever Dyne passed up the opportunity to behave like his old obnoxious self. He tried to be extra nice to his pet by letting him pick any spot on the bed that he wanted and feeding him anything his heart desired. He even stopped pressuring the alien for information about Katina and what it was like to live on his home world.

Still, Dyne continued to act as if he was cowed, and eventually his behavior became even weirder. For instance, one weekend Sora awoke to the sound of scratching against the windowpane. Groggily, he turned towards the source of the noise and was horrified to spy his cat sitting outside on the windowsill with a dead mouse caught between its sharp teeth. Once he had Sora's attention, Dyne puffed up his chest as if he were displaying an impressive trophy.

"Oh GROSS put that down! Put it down! No, not on the windowsill, throw it away!" Sora shooed his pet with disgust at the mangled carcass.

Appearing confused, Dyne reluctantly left to drop his catch into a trashcan. Afterwards, he returned to the window in his human form wearing a sulky expression. "I should have gotten a bigger one."

Grimacing at the thought of an even bigger rat, Sora opened his window so that Dyne could climb in. "Why did you kill that poor thing? You should know better than that."

Still appearing put out, the blonde easily hopped over the windowsill and landed on the mattress. "But I did it for you."

"Why? What am I going to do with a dead rat?"

"I guess things are done a little different here." Dyne's tail tapped thoughtfully against the blankets. "I was trying to impress you."

Sora gave his pet a strange look. "What for?"

"Because I want to."

Dyne's answer made Sora wrinkle his brows Just once he wished his pet would make some sense. "Dead animals don't impress me. Do you mind not killing anything anymore?"

"But what am I supposed to bring you then?" "Anything but things that used to move." There was no use trying to reason Dyne out of it. There were many strange habits that he could not break his pet out of, like licking himself clean or walking around the blankets exactly seven times before finally settling on the exact same spot he slept in every night. The most Sora could do was try to minimize Dyne's eccentricities and hope no one noticed how weird he acted.

Thankfully, Dyne took Sora's suggestion and found other presents besides maimed animals to impress him with. Spare change, intact shells from the beach, interesting stones, food and other random things were brought to Sora every day. By far, the best object was Reno's glasses, which actually did impress his master a lot. Sora had worn the shades on his head and did impressions of the redheaded Turk all day, nearly dying with laughter in the process.

That was only scratching the surface of Dyne's new eccentricities. Nowadays, he was also constantly asking for food. Although Sora was used to feeding his pet by now, he found himself constantly catering to an appetite that had doubled in size. In addition, his cat seemed nervous and flighty around him, sometimes randomly darting out of the room only to shyly return with its tail tucked between its legs. As a humanoid, Dyne would flash Sora tenuous smiles and slid his eyes to the side; a complete change from the air of proud confidence that had always surrounded the alien visitor.

Between Dyne, Cloud and the Turks trying to ruin his life, it was a wonder that Sora wasn't crushed beneath the stress. Maybe Dyne was right and he truly was "one of the stronger ones." However, things got a little out of hand one Wednesday morning, when the lie they had carefully crafted began to unravel.

On that day, Sora was in the kitchen collecting waffles for his pet. He had just finished piling a fifth wafer on the plate when a wonderful aroma teased his senses. Something spicy and herbal permeated the air, and it did not come from the food. Holding the plate in his hands, Sora meandered through the house in search of the odor's source until he eventually reached the entrance of his room.

Inside, Dyne sat at a desk while waiting for his food to arrive. Sora approached the blonde and placed his breakfast on the desk, but instead of shuffling away like he usually did, he leaned over his pet and inhaled the air above him deeply.

Noticing Sora's odd behavior, Dyne cocked a brow at him. "What?"

"You smell like cinnamon potpourri." As if unable to believe it, Sora lowered himself until the strands of Dyne's choppy hair was tickling his nose. Sure enough, the scent was coming from the blonde strands. "Mom hasn't bought that stuff in years. Where did you find it?"

"I didn't roll in the stuff, if that's what you're thinking." Despite Dyne's denial, he didn't seem surprised by the sudden manifestation of his "perfume." In fact, he looked pleased at the way Sora was hovering over him like a honeybee that's found its flower. "It's your favorite smell, isn't it?"

"Yeah. How did you guess?" Sora ruffled the longer strands of hair that swept upwards on the crown of Dyne's head. With every touch, more of that pleasant odor was released, reminding the boy of a scratch and sniff sticker.

Sora was so indulged in his petting that he barely registered the curl of Dyne's fingers around the belt loops of his pants. The catboy tilted his head back to peer into Sora's face; his brown lashes becoming lidded over an indistinguishable sea of emotion. Dyne's voice was a mere whisper, "Sora.. Do you know what pheromones are?"

"No," murmured Sora quietly. He dropped his gaze lower, past the fan of gold hair that spilled over Dyne's brow and peered into mysterious, cerulean eyes. Something in their depths bewitched him, pulling him closer to the navy fibers that burst through the pupil like the points of a star. Within that mix of light and dark blue was a secret promise, something just out of his reach, that if only he --

The doorbell rang, causing Sora to blink and return to himself. Realizing how close they were, he leaned away, only to find that Dyne tried to keep their faces near by chasing his retreat. After pulling himself out of range of.. whatever it was that Dyne was trying to do with him, he gave his pet a questioning stare. "What.. what were you doing?"

"I didn't do anything, it was you that came to me." Following the new pattern of his behavior, Dyne's gaze veered off to he side. His tail lowered completely to the floor, as if it were trying not to be noticed.

"You've been acting weird lately."

"You've been a little weird yourself. You rush to the bathroom so fast in the mornings." A corner of Dyne's pale lips lifted, displaying a familiar smile of mischief that hadn't been seen in days.

Immediately, Sora tried to hide a blush by crossing the room to his book bag. He pretended to fiddle with it in hopes of hiding his face. "Oh, um. It's been so hot lately and it makes me sweat when I sleep. I hate being sticky. I need water to get it off, I can't just lick myself, you know." Silently, Sora prayed that Dyne hadn't noticed his recent streak of morning "problems." He couldn't explain why it was happening so much lately, things had never been this bad for him since he hit puberty two years ago. He thought he had his hormones under control by now, but lately things felt a little.. out of balance.

"I see," answered Dyne innocently. He wondered if Sora was aware of how Freudian his words sounded. Little did the boy know, Dyne was the source of the uncontrollable changes in his body and his recent strange behavior. Sometimes the catboy felt sorry for causing Sora such confusion, but he was more thrilled with the Special Thing that was happening between them. The shine in Dyne's eyes should have given it away, but Sora was too naive to read between the lines.

Unfortunately, the boys had been too wrapped up in each other to remember that the doorbell had chimed. Since no one else seemed keen to answer it, Cloud opened the front door himself. Waiting on the porch was a rather determined looking Kairi, who had decided that today was the day she would create her own noose and hang herself with it. In other words, she had decided to ask Dyne to the homecoming dance, which was why she had shown up fifteen minutes earlier than usual.

"Good morning. Is Dyne up yet?"

Although Cloud had only been there a few days, he knew all about the story of Sora's cat. Sora's mother had told him about the sweet way the teenagers had taken care of the creature, as well as how Kairi seemed to have a mild obsession for the feline. As a result of this knowledge, Cloud couldn't help the amusement that twinkled in his eyes. "I think I saw him wandering after Sora. You really like that cat a lot, don't you?"

Realizing that the man thought she had come all this way just for the cat, Kairi let out an embarrassed giggle. If Cloud weren't so handsome, it wouldn't have bothered her so much that he knew how much she pampered their pet. "Oh no, I mean the boy. Did he wake up yet?"

Confusion replaced the humor that wrinkled the corners of Cloud's eyes. "I'm not sure I follow. Did someone sleep over here last night?"

Kairi gave Cloud an odd look. "No, I'm talking about Dyne. The blonde kid that's been staying here for the past two weeks."

Now Cloud was the one giving Kairi weird looks. "That kid that comes here with you everyday? I'm pretty sure that he doesn't live here."

"...Oh." A small frown marred Kairi's face. Cautiously, she threw in one last question. "If you don't mind me asking, you've been moved in for a while, right?"

"I've been here for the past four days." Cloud gave the girl a helpless one-shouldered shrug. If there was an extra kid living in the house, he was sure that he would notice it.

So did Kairi. She knew something was not right, and the feeling that she had been lied to did not sit well with her. "Well, I guess there's always Sora then."

With an apologetic smile, Cloud stepped aside so that Kairi could walk in. Muttering a quick "thanks," the girl walked past the man and went straight to Sora's room. Pausing just outside of it, she strained her ears to listen for any voices inside. She heard two people talking, but the sound was too muffled to distinguish what they were saying.

Kairi's lips pressed into a frown. Remembering how stupid she looked in front of Cloud because of Sora's and Dyne's lies made her angry enough to open the door and enter without announcement. She half-hoped that she would catch them doing something bad to justify the way she wanted to yell at them for causing the hurt she felt now.

Instead, the rather innocent scene of Dyne eating waffles at the table and Sora messing around with his book bag greeted her. Kairi could plainly see that her sudden entrance had startled the boys, and now that she observed Sora, she could tell that he was uncomfortable at having her there.

"Oh, you were the one at the door," said Sora in a tone that barely hid his apprehension.

"Of course I was at the door, I come here in the morning every day." Kairi's words were very clipped. Sora was her childhood friend, why would he lie about Dyne? Was this some kind of joke?

Sora scowled with defensiveness upon hearing the tightness in Kairi's voice. "Sorry. Is something up?"

Kairi could have asked him the same thing. Her feelings for Sora warred with the thoughts of his betrayal. Thankfully, she had the presence of mind not to make a scene at his house so early in the morning with the adults around. Looking foolish in front of Cloud just once was enough. So she kept the things she wanted to say tightly lidded until she was ready to free them at a more convenient time. "Yes. I want to talk to Dyne."

"....Ok."

"Alone."

Raising a brow, Sora glanced over at his pet. Dyne was barely even paying attention, he was too busy shoving waffle pieces into his mouth faster than he could chew. Shaking his head at the sight, Sora stood up and walked to the door. "Fine, I'll be in the kitchen." Where he would ponder on what he managed to do to make Kairi so peeved. Girls were so weird.

When Sora left, Kairi strode towards Dyne. He just finished the last of his waffles and was licking his fingers when the girl approached. Dyne gave Kairi a curious look. "Is this about the student council?"

"Not really." In light of the discoveries Kairi had recently made, asking Dyne out was harder than she originally expected it to be. The blonde headed kid had always been an enigma to her, and now he was even more clouded in mystery because there was no telling what other lies he had been spreading. Linking her hands behind her back, Kairi forced herself not to think about those things and concentrate on getting this stupid thing done. "Actually, I came here because," a pause followed due to the fact that she didn't really want to say the following words, "I want to ask you to the dance."

There was a stretch of silence after this statement during which Dyne gave her a skeptical look. "Are you serious?"

"Yes." The fact that Dyne questioned her that way almost made Kairi want to take her words back. "I'm serious."

Dyne reached up to readjust his cap as if it had somehow moved or became unsettled during this conversation. "Don't you want to take Sora instead?"

Kairi inhaled deeply, as if she was gathering her wits before answering Dyne's question carefully. "I always go with Sora, but he's probably tired of coming with me all the time. I just thought that for once I should do something different. You don't already have a date, do you?" Although it was true that Kairi had been to other dances with Sora, those could hardly be called real dates. They had been too young to fully appreciate the meaning behind taking someone special to a party. It was ironic that she was trying to change that aspect of their relationship by asking someone else to go to the homecoming dance.

Dyne took a few moments to consider what Kairi had said, and then he grinned as if he'd just won a prize. "Do you really want to be homecoming princess that bad?"

Kairi was shocked that Dyne was able to guess her motive so easily. Had she been that transparent all along? Still, Kairi hoped that he understood that she really did want him to win against Rufus so that they could live in peace for the rest of the year. Those efforts had always been genuine. "Selphie told you, didn't she?"

"Something like that." Actually, Kairi had told Dyne everything the last time she cuddled with him while he was a cat. As usual, she had the best secrets.

Unfortunately, Kairi's imagination supplied what must have happened between Dyne and Selphie. Her friend probably threatened to torture the blonde if he didn't say yes to being Kairi's date. Great, now he was never going to be her date to the homecoming dance. The heaviness of defeat made her shoulders slump.

Although Selphie meant well, she just didn't understand that Kairi was not one of those girls who could walk up to a guy and have them wrapped around her little finger. She was no Elena. No way Kairi would ever be that pretty. "Oh. I understand if you don't want to go with me then."

"Are you kidding? I didn't nominate you for nothing. Just don't paint your face too much." Dyne still cringed whenever he remembered the nightmarish mask that Kairi had arrived with on the first day of school.

"Then.. it's a yes?" Kairi's heart fluttered with the thought of acceptance.

"How can it not be a yes? Sora will be really impressed when you win."

With happiness, Kairi threw her arms around a surprised Dyne and gave him a tight squeeze. "Thank you!" Not only was he going to help her become princess, but he understood that she was doing this for Sora and was willing to help her. This was better than anything she could have asked for.

Unable to resist the opportunities that came from being so close to Kairi, Dyne wasted no time wrapping an arm over her shoulders. As with Sora, he wished that she would treat him as nicely as she did when he was a cat. Naturally, for that to happen Dyne would need to learn how to control his mouth, a feat that wasn't happening anytime soon. "Of course, you'll have to give me something."

That comment had the effect of sapping all of the joy out of Kairi's face. She should have known! "Don't push your luck," she answered stonily as she began to pull away.

"What? I just want a goodnight kiss!"

Kairi glared at Dyne.

"On the cheek! You act like it's the end of the world."

Nervous, accepting laughter fell from Kairi's lips. For some reason, she thought that Dyne would have expected more. A little of her humor returned. "Heheh, I can do that."

"I'm not that ugly am I?" Smiling, Dyne lightly bumped Kairi's chin with the knuckles of his free hand before releasing the one-armed hug that had been draped over her shoulders.

"Not too ugly," Kairi joked with a grin of her own. She had to admit, when she got past Dyne's weirdness he did look really cute. Clearly he was trying to be her friend; he always supported her and now was willing to help her out with Sora. _But why did you have to lie to me?_

Then and there, Kairi wanted to ask him why he lied about staying at Sora's house. However, before the words came forth, something amazing teased at her senses. Kairi turned her head from left to right in an attempt to pinpoint the source of what it had been, and then centered her searching look on Dyne. "Are you wearing cologne?"

Judging by the wide-eyed look on Dyne's face, Kairi's words surprised him. "You smell something?"

Kairi dropped her head in a nod. "I smell sandalwood. You find lots of it in the mountains at the play island. I love the way it smells." Seized by a strange urge to find out where that scent was coming from, Kairi leaned over the back of Dyne's chair to inhale the air around him. Her fingers moved without conscious thought to gently cup the side of the blonde's face. There was something so familiar about touching him; a knowledge that was just barely out of her reach.

As Dyne had imagined, Kairi's hands felt just as nice against skin as with fur. She even petted the same way; starting by his whiskers - or in this case, cheek, and then roaming upward to rub between his ears - _uh oh_. Dyne snapped out of the pleasured lull that Kairi's stroking had put him in just as her fingers skirted the edges of his hat. He clamped a hand over the back of his head to make sure that the baseball cap remained snug against his scalp. "What about Sora?"

_Sora?_ Blinking, Kairi pulled her hand away from Dyne's face. That's right, Sora was waiting for them to finish talking. What had she just been doing anyway? A feeling of strangeness overcame her with the realization that she had just zoned out and done something very, very weird. Did Dyne somehow coax her into touching him? No, it had been of her own free will. What was going on?

Suddenly, Kairi had to know the secret they were hiding. Maybe it would explain why she felt like she knew Dyne. They might have met a long time ago, but she was sure that she would have remembered his face. Kairi wanted some answers. "Why are you and Sora lying about you living here?"

_Shit._ Dyne stiffened from head to toe. How did she find out? "What are you talking about?"

The only thing keeping Kairi from marching to Sora right now and shaking the information out of him was the fact that Dyne was willing to help her with her problems. If he was okay with going that far for her, then naturally Dyne should trust her enough to tell her what was going on. "You know exactly what I'm talking about. I've talked to Cloud and he barely even knows who you are."

"Cloud," that son of a bitch. Dyne knew this was going to happen. Thinking fast, he went with the first excuse that popped in his head. "That's because.. that.. that Cloud. He.." The catboy glanced at Kairi wearing this fake, sad scowl that was supposed to make him look as if he were on the verge of tears. "He refuses to acknowledge my presence. He obviously doesn't want me around. Just because he thinks I'm a freeloader, whenever anyone comes around he tells them that I don't live here. Can you believe that jerk? Only here for like four days and already acting like he's the man of the house. He's a horrible asshole and I'm sick of his emotional abuse!"

Outside, a distant call of "goodbye Sora" was chimed by Cloud. Kairi looked towards the window to spy the man walking towards the beach with his surfboard tucked under his arm. As always, Cloud was picture perfect with his sweet smile and easygoing demeanor.

That man was capable of emotional abuse?

Just then, the door to the bedroom opened and an annoyed Sora poked his head into the room. "Are you guys done yet? What are you talking about that I have to be left out anyway?"

No, they were far from done, but Kairi didn't feel like hearing more lies. It took all of her self-restraint to compose herself after having her intelligence insulted by Dyne's latest whopper. "I just needed to ask him something personal."

"Is it about my birthday?" Excitement entered Sora's voice. His fifteenth birthday was only a few days away, and he'd gotten the impression that there was a huge surprise waiting for him.

Hearing Sora sound so happy made Kairi melt inside. It reminded her that no matter what his intentions were, her friend would never hurt her on purpose. What would make her sweet Sora turn into a liar? Worry began to replace the anger she had initially felt. "Sorry Sora, my lips are sealed."

"Awwww!"

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Later on that day, Dyne told Sora that Kairi had asked him to the homecoming dance. He was nice enough to leave out the reason for the girl's sudden interest in him since it was obvious that Kairi was simply waiting for the perfect moment to reveal her feelings herself. Sora was stunned by the news, because he had expected her to be his date like always.

With a teasing lilt to his voice, Dyne asked Sora if he was jealous. Of course he wasn't jealous, it was just.. weird. Besides, now that Kairi had a date, what was he going to do? It was mean to leave him high and dry like this! ..Even though, technically, they never made real plans or talked about it. Sora just assumed that she would be his backup date for every dance.

Of course, Riku had a partner already. Practically every girl in the school would rip off their right arm just to go out with him. Psh, it was stupid. Why would Kairi want to take Dyne? By the end of the day, Sora had run through a gamut of reasons as to why an alien would be picked over him. Did he dance badly? Was he boring? Was his hair too long? Too short? Did he get ugly? Did he smell??

Unable to come up with a viable explanation as to why Kairi wouldn't take him, that same Wednesday night Sora called her house in order to hear the answers straight from the horse's mouth.

Mentally, he counted the number of times the phone rang until Kairi picked up.

Riiiing. Riiiing. Riiiing. "Heshlo?"

"It's me. You getting ready to go to bed?"

"Yesshh." The scratching sound that came from Kairi's end of the line confirmed that she was brushing her teeth.

Well used to talking to his friend while she was crunching on something, Sora didn't mind that Kairi's mouth was full. "You know, I was wondering. About the dance. You're really going with Dyne?"

"Mmhmm."

"So it's true?" Sora had been hoping that Dyne was lying again.

" --scratchscratchDuhSorascratch-- "

"It's just that sometimes he makes up stories, I had to be sure. You know how, uhm. Weird he can be sometimes." As much as Sora hated to say it, his pet was a pervert.

"Ptooie. I'm a big girl, I can handle it."

"..Oh..."

"Is that all you called me for?"

"Yeah, I guess that's it.."

"You liar." Kairi twisted open a squeaky faucet. To overcome the noise of rushing water, she raised her voice. "You've been lying to me a lot lately you know. Don't think I haven't noticed."

Stunned, Sora was quiet for moment. His heart skipped a beat at the realization that he had been found out. "..Kairi.."

"Don't think Riku hasn't noticed either. We talked about it today. You and Dyne are keeping something from us." There was a long pause as Kairi rinsed out her mouth and then turned off the water. An audible sigh was exhaled into the receiver. "We've decided that whatever it is, we won't ask you for the truth until your birthday because we don't want to ruin that. After though, Sora, you better come clean or we're going to have problems."

Sora could only respond with silence.

"Please don't go quiet on me! That's not you Sora, you never were that way before. Why can't you trust me? We've been friends since we were little kids! When have I ever given away a secret or hurt you? Because this does hurt me, OK?"

"I'm sorry," murmured Sora in a soft voice.

"Sora, when you're ready, please come to me. We'll work through things together. I promise that whatever it is, I won't be mad and I won't freak out. Don't forget that I'm here for you."

"...yeah.."

Each monosyllabic response made Kairi's spirits sink. Why was it so hard to get through to Sora? It was like he was closing himself off. "As for the dance.. You can always go with Selphie, she wouldn't say no. Just promise me that you'll think hard about why I'm taking Dyne. Maybe the answer will come to you."

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Unfortunately, the only answer that Sora could come up with was that he was a liar and Kairi knew it. Still, it didn't make sense to take Dyne to the dance instead of him since the alien told just as many lies.

In the end, the way Kairi and Riku were hurt was more important than why Sora was stuck taking Selphie to the dance. Every day, he regretted not telling his friends what was really going on, but he felt that he had made the right choice at the time. Kairi needed less stress and Riku was too unpredictable lately to trust with his cat's secret.

As usual, Dyne supported letting the truth be revealed, but Sora couldn't bring himself to believe that everything was going to work itself out. Beneath it all, he secretly worried that someone was going to take his pet away from him. Dyne was still his cat, the one that he nursed back to life, that he took care of, that he protected and lied for, and frankly, it had been kind of fun keeping this one little secret just between the two of them. For the first time, Sora didn't want to share.

With Kairi's ultimatum dangling over his head like a hangman's noose, Sora spent his days very off-centered. Kairi always gave him sad smiles and Riku was constantly angry about something. On top of that, the Turks still spent every moment of their day trying to embarrass him; especially Reno, who spent soccer practices making Sora and Dyne look bad on the field. Thrown into the mix was Cloud, who was trying to get to know his girlfriend's son, but Sora didn't have the heart to connect with the man.

As if there was not enough stress in Sora's life, Dyne was becoming increasingly strange as time went by. One morning, Sora woke up to find his pet feverishly licking his hip as if it were the most delicious morsel in the world. His fur felt as if it was on fire, causing Sora to come to the conclusion that Dyne was sick. This scared him more than anything else did; there were no veterinarians on Destiny Islands and even if there were, what good could they do for an alien?

Dyne's condition worsened with every passing day. Eventually he refused to go to school and begged his owner to stay home with him. Sora tried to persuade his mother to let him skip school, but his excuses wouldn't work with her. In the end, it was all he could do to tuck his pet into bed and leave a bowl and glass filled with cold water within reach.

Before Sora left, he tried to make his feverish companion promise to go to his mother for help if his condition worsened regardless of the consequences. However, Dyne insisted that he wasn't sick even though frightening trembles were making his teeth chatter. Wearing a light smirk, the catboy turned down the promise and told Sora that he really didn't know what he was asking for.

Sora went to school frustrated over Dyne's stubbornness and spent the day worrying over him. As soon as his classes were over, he skipped soccer practice and rushed all the way back home. Upon returning to his room, he found that it was saturated with the smell of spicy cinnamon. Dyne was still in the same place he left him, though the blankets had been uprooted from their tucking as if the catboy had been tossing around in his sleep.

When Sora entered the room, Dyne watched his every move with piercing intensity. "Come closer," he whispered in a soft voice. "There's something I have to tell you."

Swallowing a lump in his throat, Sora walked to the bed and gently settled beside Dyne. His alien friend was completely flushed and so hot that Sora could feel it without touching him.

"Pet me," murmured Dyne. When Sora obeyed and began to softly stroke the hair behind his cat-like ears, Dyne closed his eyes and shivered from head to tail. "Uhn.. I'm so glad that you do that again."

Ducking his head, Sora looked apologetic at the mention of how he treated Dyne when he first revealed his human form to him.

"It's alright. We've become great friends anyway, right?" Dyne shared a small smile with Sora over that. "If it weren't for you, I would have died after my ship crashed. You didn't even want anything in return for taking care of me. That doesn't happen a lot on Katina. Sora, it's because of that, that I - "

"Please don't die," interrupted Sora in a shaky voice. "I'll take you to a human doctor. I don't care if they find out who you are, I can't let you go like this!"

In response to this plaintive outburst, Dyne stared at Sora as if he were the two-headed freak at the circus. "Die? You think I'm dying?!" Judging by the pale expression on Sora's face, it was obvious that the boy really did think that Dyne was going to kick the bucket. The catboy didn't know whether to laugh or smack Sora. Instead of doing either, he quickly sat up, displaying that he was far from weak and helpless despite his mild shaking. "That is not what this is about."

Before Sora could say anymore genius things, Dyne wrapped his arms around his master's neck. The ears atop the nest of his gold hair pointed forwards; attentive to every rustle of the brunette's clothing beneath his fingertips and against the bed; listening for every hitch in breath and increase in the muted thrumming of a confused heart.

Although Sora been held by his pet many times, there was something different about it this time. A tingly sensation was beginning in his spine, one that he experienced whenever Kairi brushed his hair or Riku worked his muscles in a soothing massage. It was a feeling that he linked with closeness, which made him smile gently. He had never felt it with someone who wasn't his family or best friends.

Moments ago, Sora had been worried that his pet was sick and dying, but those thoughts and the perplexity at Dyne's current actions were whisked away by the tangy fragrance that enveloped him. Delightful cinnamon lulled him into a dreamy and receptive state so complete that when a raspy tongue laved at the skin of his neck he found himself tilting his head to give it more access.

"It was a tough choice you know." Dyne's voice barely pierced the fog in the Sora's mind. The catboy shivered even though he was burning up; heated by a culminating desire that was taking his breath away. Sora's skin was ambrosia that he couldn't stop tasting, and he demanded more of it. Capturing spiky brown hair in a fist, he orchestrated the surrender of Sora's throat with a firm tug.

Within such a powerful thrall, it was hard for the drugged boy to think or move. The innocent prickling that had always centered between Sora's shoulder blades was traveling lower, stopping only when it hovered just behind his heart. Dyne painted a trail with his tongue towards the hollow of his neck, while his free hand stole a corner of Sora's sleeve and tugged it until his collar stretched past a round shoulder. In a good impression of Dracula, he bit a place at the base of Sora's jugular that made the boy swoon to the mattress with a soft whimper.

Every passing second of this dance increased Dyne's excitement. He'd waited and wanted this from the moment he gifted Sora with his purr. Crawling over the other's supine body, Dyne propped himself on his palms and knees so that he could look down at Sora and tell him what he had decided in the past few days. "Kairi took good care of me too. I like her, I'm willing to share you with her." His tail undulated to and fro in a seductive little dance behind him, happily taking part in this little confession. "But you're the one I choose."

"Dyne," pleaded Sora in a strained voice, though he didn't know what he was asking his pet for. He didn't understand what was being said here or why what they were doing felt so sinfully good. This was nebulous territory for the boy, who had never experienced carnal desire on the extreme level that Dyne currently did.

Indeed, Dyne was so turned on that his fever surged and his body quaked with need. His voice was husky and desperate as he shakily lifted Sora's shirt and clawed at the hem of his shorts. "I choose you to be my First." A wave of absolute hunger for Sora rocked his core and forced a cry of piteous urgency from his lips. Unable to wait any longer, he laid himself out over the body beneath him. "Un.. Sora.. I've wanted this.." Dyne ducked his head as a stronger ache made him rub a rock hard erection against Sora's cloth covered crotch. "Please.. haah.. fuck me!"

**WHAT.**

The clock struck twelve and the spell over Sora was broken. There was no telling what saved him first, those dirty little words or the hot cock that Dyne was determined to slip under his shorts. Sheer panic cleared the pheromone's effect, allowing everything that was happening around the boy to be cognitively processed at lightning speed. "W-wait a minute!"

"I don't care if it hurts." As soon as Sora sat up, Dyne wrapped his legs around his master's waist and encouraged the boy to get on with the sex by licking his face in quick little strokes. The cat ears atop his head drooped submissively to the sides, indicating that he was ready for the taking. "Mmm.. just put it in me.. hurry up.. I need it.. meow."

Horrified, Sora tried to shush his pet before someone in the house heard what Dyne was saying. The catboy refused to be silenced until he got what he needed and began to yowl as loudly as any cat looking to get laid.

"Stop it! Mom and Cloud will hear you!"

Unfortunately, Dyne was too far-gone to stop or even listen to a thing Sora said anymore. Then, just as things couldn't get any worse, Sora's mother called through the door. "Sora, there's no way that cat is staying inside if it's going to be that noisy. Take it out."

"...Ok mom!" Sora answered in a squeaky voice, because Dyne had taken up humping his lap. The boy tried to peel his pet off, but Dyne refused to be dislodged and protested loudly whenever body contact between them was reduced. Since Sora's mom was complaining already, it was only a matter of time before the woman attempted to come into the room to get rid of the cat herself. This left only one option.

Carrying his lust-crazed burden, Sora unlatched the window of his room and jumped outside. Then he ran to the backyard as fast as his legs could carry him before any of his neighbors spotted him lugging a naked boy with fuzzy ears and tail. His destination was the tool shed, which thankfully had been left unlocked. The door was thrown open and he stumbled inside, not because he had tripped but due to Dyne's tail creeping along his thigh beneath his shorts. Things clattered and fell noisily as he fumbled through the darkened interior, until he finally managed to plop the blonde's butt on a tool bench.

"Mmmnn Sora, this position is a little hard for a beginner."

"Dyne, I'm.." Frantically, Sora tried to pry his pet's legs from around his waist. "I-I'm not ready!"

"Then take off your clothes before I rip them! Rrrrwr."

Sadly, Dyne didn't understand what was really being communicated here. Under the presumption that Sora was "getting ready," the catboy released his death grip on the boy's body. Immediately, Sora backpedaled away from the bench until he managed to leave the shed. As soon as he was outside, the door was closed with a resounding bang.

"Sora?" Confusion riddled the inquiry of the name. As if in answer, the sure click of a padlock being snipped into place reached Dyne's ears. "Sora!"

Outside, Sora hugged himself as if his pet's cries hurt him physically.

"Sora!!" Dyne hopped onto another table where a window allowed him to look outside. The view was obscured by slim but strong metal bars placed very close together for the express purpose of keeping squirrels from getting into the tool shed. Dyne's eyes were wide and fearful as he peered through the metal rods. "Sora, don't leave me like this!"

Sora shook his head and began to back away.

"Sora!! Please, I'll do anything! I'll suck your cock! I'll make you cum, just please don't leave me like this, I thought you liked me!" A keening wail was building in Dyne's throat. "Haven't I been a good kitty?"

Unable to listen to Dyne's begging anymore, Sora's expression crumbled before he turned and ran blindly to the house. He burst through the front door, much to the adults' surprise, and went straight for his bedroom. He dived beneath the sheets of his bed and pulled the blankets over his head to block out the distant sound of his pet crying soulfully for him. A dry sob escaped his lips.

Inside the living room, Sora's mother exchanged a look with Cloud. "I guess he's just at that age."

Chuckling, Cloud distantly remembered his own bouts with hormones and moodiness when he was a teenager. Then, the adults settled down and spent a few peaceful moments in silence. After a while, Cloud's brows knitted together as if something just occurred to him. "Isn't that cat male?"

"Yes, it's a boy."

"You know that's funny." Cloud lowered his papers. "I thought only female cats went into heat."

"Maybe he sees another girl cat that he can't get to. Like in the cartoons, where they sit in the alley and "sing" all night until someone throws a boot at it."

Cloud chuckled at that imagery before returning to his scientific reports with one last comment. "Sounds like one frustrated cat."  
  
  
  
**To be continued.**  
  
  



	7. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Author** : Cold Silence  
>  **E-Mail** : writer.coldsilence@gmail.com  
>  **Pairings** : Riku + Kairi + Sora, Sora x BHK. (BHK = Blonde Headed Kid from KH II)  
>  **Warnings** : AU, Yaoi, Het, Furs, Dubious Consent. OOC Roxas due to the fandom personality he was given before information on his character was released with KH2.  
>  **Webpage** : https://coldsilence.tumblr.com/post/433113072/index
> 
> **Special Note** : This fic has relationships with things that have tails. Also, this story was started before Roxas's name was revealed, hence why he is named differently in this fic. Don't worry though, this actually fits well with what I have planned for him in the end.  
>   
>   
> 

**Fuzzy Love**  
- _Chapter Seven_ -  
  


Sora had done a very, very bad thing. He knew with every fiber of his being that what he did to Dyne was completely unforgivable. To lock him away like that, even though his pet wanted the impossible from him, was cruel.

Although he acknowledged this, he did not take the responsible step of returning to the tool shed to at least negotiate with the alien. He rationalized that the blonde was incapable of doing more than moan or beg, so talking some sense into his pet would be out of the question. Besides, if someone caught him whispering to a mysterious, horny entity in the backyard then there would be a lot of questions to answer to.

Pushing aside all the excuses, in reality Sora was simply afraid. Something had almost happened in his bedroom that he didn't intend or clearly understand. He'd felt so open and receptive while he was seduced.. by his CAT. And it wasn't even a girl cat! Horror, shame and disgust at his own idiocy for letting things get that far made him feel sick. To make things worse, things would never be the same with Dyne ever again. Their relationship had irrevocably changed, and he didn't want to face that.

However, Sora had no choice but to deal with it one day, because sooner or later Cloud was going to open the tool shed door. To avoid the disaster of his mother's boyfriend walking in on a naked, deranged Dyne, the smart thing to have done was to move his pet to a better location. Unfortunately, this meant facing the blonde's overpowering desire again, or even worse, his wrath at being rejected so meanly. Against these options, Sora preferred risking the discovery of his cat's alienhood to putting himself beneath that avalanche.

A day passed.

In the morning, ghostly whimpering and scratching from the backyard reached Sora's ears and inflicted him with crushing guilt. He went to school to escape it, only to have his stomach churn with regret when his friends asked him where Dyne was. In answer to their questions, he said that Dyne couldn't come because he got sick. At least it was not a complete lie.

Sora purposely stayed out late because he expected his mom and Cloud to be standing on the porch with the police and a pissed off alien in handcuffs. Thankfully, this was not the case when he returned home. There were no FBI agents, the tool shed was still closed and nothing was amiss.

During a perfectly normal dinner conversation, Cloud playfully admitted that he was scared to get his surfboard while the cat was going crazy. Sora's mother, on the other hand, had been brave enough to push food and water under the door for Dyne, but the feline didn't seem to be eating.

Upon hearing this, Sora sank low in his chair.

Another day passed.

At school, Selphie argued with Tidus over whether the flu was supposed to be 24 or 48 hours long. The argument originated from a rumor that Dyne was faking his sickness to avoid the Turks. Back home, Cloud continued to resist the urge to surf, though Sora's mother had begun to seriously contemplate neutering the cat.

"It's just such a shame," she commented with a furrow of her brows. "He sounds so miserable and he won't even eat."

Sora didn't eat either. And he didn't sleep.

Day three.

Dark circles appeared beneath Sora's eyes, and it was obvious to anyone that he was depressed. People kept asking him where Dyne was, which only drove him further into his emotional sickness. When he got tired of mumbling excuses, he simply isolated himself by pretending to sleep or wandering off on his own.

After school, Sora skipped soccer practice and took a boat to the play island. Once there, he chose one of the shacks that lined the beach and closed himself in it. In his quest to avoid going home, he tucked his book bag under his head and waited the hours away. During this time, his thoughts chased themselves in circles, repeating the same things over and over again:

His cat was attracted to him sexually. He almost let him prove it. They were going to be discovered. Dyne couldn't stay in the tool shed forever. When he came out, he was going to be angry. There was no forgiveness for him.

In the end, Sora told himself that he definitely needed to do something about the situation today. However, the only option he could think of was to simply let Dyne out of the tool shed and take things from there, which he should have done three days ago. Due to his procrastination, the fallout from his actions was going to be a thousand times worse. Awareness of this fact made it extremely difficult to physically get up, go home and face the music. Yet he knew he had to do it, and he waited for his courage to build for that task.

Eventually, the sun sank, and the moon climbed high into the sky.

By the time Sora rowed back to his island, it was close to midnight. Upon approaching his home, he noticed a lack of lights; indicating that his mother and Cloud had escaped to another one of their honeymoon trips on the boat. Their absence was almost too perfect, although it didn't make the walk to the backyard any easier. When he reached the tool shed, he braced nerveless fingers against the door and timidly called for his pet.

"Dyne..?"

Only his beating heart answered the inquiry. With trepidation and culminating worry, Sora opened the padlock and pushed the door open. Silver moonlight filtered into the shadowed interior; piercing the darkness and revealing utter emptiness. Dyne was not there. To confirm this, Sora stepped inside to make absolutely sure, and that's when it hit him: Cloud kept the keys for his boats inside the tool shed. He must have opened the door when he came to fetch them.

Immediately, Sora rushed to his house. This was it, they've been found out haven't they? Cloud must have called the police or NASA, and Dyne was probably locked in a container being prepped for weird experiments. Sora's poor, tired mind kept supplying impossible scenarios, each one more frightening than the last. Sadly, the image of his pet caught in a rush of desire had planted itself so firmly in Sora's mind that it didn't occur to him that the alien most likely morphed into a cat before his mom's boyfriend saw anything suspicious.

After rushing past the front door, Sora fumbled along the walls until he found the light switch for the living room. The illumination didn't reveal any Gestapo, but the figure that was revealed from the darkness was just as bad. Sitting stiffly on the couch was Dyne, who had been waiting for Sora's arrival with folded arms. The sight of his pet made the boy's breath catch.

Although it was obvious that Sora had arrived, Dyne refused to look at him. His expression was hard as granite; the dark smudges beneath his eyes a testimony to the three torturous days he'd spent in the tool shed. The fact that he was completely dressed - baseball cap and all - said that he was planning to go somewhere.

Since Sora wasn't doing much besides staring in stupefied silence, Dyne took it upon himself to be the first to speak. "So. You finally come home."

Wincing at the toneless voice he was addressed with, Sora forced himself to speak despite the way his throat constricted. "I was going to let you out, honest - "

"That was my first Estrus," interrupted the catboy in a voice loud enough to be heard a couple rooms over. "And you, you locked me away as if I were a common animal."

"I'm sorry," wheezed Sora; barely managing to make himself heard. There was nothing he could do and nothing he could say to make things better. He was more sorry than words could possibly convey. "I didn't know - "

"Didn't know?!" Dyne's voice bordered on hysterics. For the first time, he turned around to face Sora while his fingernails cleaved little furrows into the couch. "I have been hitting on you since before you saw me on two legs. Did you need me to stamp "I want you" on my forehead just to get you to notice?" His tail towered over his head, straight and poufed with anger. "Don't give me that bullshit that you didn't know!"

It was true, Sora had known all along. Unlike Kairi, Dyne's flirtations made it completely obvious from the beginning that he was interested. However, Sora convinced himself that the catboy's affections were all part of normal cat behavior; they all liked to rub, lick and be innocently impish. Now, he knew the folly of that presumption; Dyne had never been a normal cat, and nothing he did was ever innocent.

Caught in his lie, and it was all Sora could do to stutter, "I-I was scared.."

_Scared_. Yes, Dyne could see that this was true. Even now, just as he was back then, Sora was afraid of being close to him. Closing his eyes to hide his disappointment and hurt, Dyne collected his dignity, and then rose from the couch. In a voice that was deceptively soft, he spoke to Sora one last time. "Scared? Heh." A tight, grim smile was plastered on his lips as he began to walk past the still boy. "Don't worry. There's no need to be afraid anymore, because the monster is leaving. I found a way to get off this planet, and since I'm obviously not wanted, I'm gone."

Riveted to his spot with shock, Sora could only stand there while his pet breezed past him. Dyne walked to the front door with his tail arched primly behind him and his head held high with pride. There was no hesitation as he left the house and abandoned Sora to an empty living room.

Unexpectedly, tears fell from Sora's eyes and vanished into the carpeting below.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Outside, Dyne marched straight to the docks. He had it with this watery planet and its retarded humans that were peaceful yet warlike at the same time. He had it with pretending to be someone's pet, as well as constantly hiding as if he were some kind of freak in a zoo. But most of all, he had it with having his feelings unrequited and shoved aside as if they were unimportant. If Sora would prefer jacking off in the shower instead of coming near him, then fine! Let his penis get raw and fall off, he didn't care. He was getting out of here.

Upon reaching the rows of boats that were stranded on the beach, Dyne grabbed the first available one and began to shove it into the ocean. As soon as it began to float, he hopped inside and grabbed an oar, intending to use it to push the vessel further away from land without having to wade in the water. Unfortunately, just as he jammed the oar into the sand, he looked up and saw an endless expanse of water stretching out before him.

So. Much. Water. The tufted ears beneath his hat drooped in dismay, and his skin blanched an even paler shade of white. Shit. He.. he couldn't do this!

Absolute fear made Dyne duck his head so that he wouldn't have to gaze at the horizon. Beneath the sky, the water moved like a living thing; shifting and lapping at the rowboat like a hungry black serpent. Terror at the prospect of going out there, all alone with nothing but a curved piece of wood to prevent him from drowning rendered Dyne motionless.

_I can't do this!_

Yet, if Dyne wanted to leave the planet, then he had to go to the island his ship had crashed on. An island that lied in the middle of all that water.

It wasn't fair. Just like everything else in his life, it was completely unfair.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Sora always asked his pet what Katina was like. At first, Dyne resisted telling him because his home world held many bad memories for him, but eventually he relented since his master was so persistent. In order to describe it in terms that a human would understand, Dyne said that his home was like a very technological ancient Greece. All of their buildings were crafted out of stone and designed to be very geometric to the eye. High domed ceilings, fluted columns, the occasional naked statue; all these things made up the decor of where the alien lived.

In addition, the weather was always nice, because it was climate controlled by powerful reactors located beneath the city. An enormous, invisible shield made of energy not yet discovered by humans covered their civilization; keeping their weather systems in check and protecting them from enemies. Ever since their world collapsed into war, the Katinans divided themselves into clans that were separated by giant citadels housed within these barriers.

Anyone not part of a clan was sure to die, because Katina was a desert planet. Outside of the domes, two suns scorched the land completely dry. Water could only be found deep beneath the surface, where only advanced aqueduct systems could reach. It explained why Dyne always freaked out at the sight of copious amounts of water, even if it was only two inches deep.

During the day, the sky was a blistering red outside of the shields but a more muted yellow within. Nighttime lasted 12 hours out of a 15-hour day, and because of an erratic orbit caused by the pull of two suns, the evening crept up on them at least three times daily. Depending on the season, any number of their seven moons could be seen gracing the skies no matter what time it was. Each of these moons represented a god or goddess that watched over the Katinans and gave them peace or ruin.

Sora had listened attentively to these words and believed Katina to be a wondrous place.

Maybe in some ways it was. However, their society was drastically different from that of Earth's. Within each clan was a caste system that separated the Katinans into warriors, slaves, soldiers, guardians, and many other tasks needed for a technological civilization at war to function. The only cats above the caste system were the ruling family of the entire clan. They give their orders to the Alphas, the leaders of every caste, who in turn mobilize their members into doing what is needed.

Unfortunately, this explanation was a little complicated for Sora, so Dyne resorted to drawing a flow chart for him to understand, complete with little footnotes. Afterwards, things were a little clearer.

Sora wanted to know more, like why Dyne left Katina in the first place, but his pet wouldn't say anything about it. All the catboy would reveal was that "Some pains in the ass are too big to ignore." Not to mention, knowledge of certain social practices were likely to traumatize Sora's poor, naive little mind.

Indeed, in Katina innocence only lasted the first few weeks after birth because all kittens are born blind. Before they are capable of sight, they are helpless in a world of darkness with only the press of their parent's bodies and touch of their warm tongues to assure them that they are cared for. Dyne was one of those rare cats who could actually remember the first couple of days outside of the womb.

Sadly, his time to be sheltered by his father's purr and lavished with milk from his mother's teats was short lived. One day, his sires vanished, and although he was too young to understand why, Dyne knew by instinct that something bad had happened. Along with his brothers and sisters, he called and called for their return, but they never felt nor smelled their protective presence ever again. The ongoing war had claimed their parents, leaving their litter orphaned.

Starvation would have been their fate if not for the custom of other clans to steal the enemy's children and raise them as their own. In their war torn world, if the numbers of a clan diminished greatly, there was a good chance that their opponents would attempt to annihilate them in one coup de main. Therefore, to offset the number of cats killed in battle, they had to constantly take in any kittens that were young enough to be raised with that particular clan's ideals.

Dyne and his siblings were spoils of war. The Spiral Claws took them in, the clan that had killed their parents. Their new clan consisted of a fierce group of cats that were bent on dominating all of Katina. The Rajah's only son, who was a mere 32 crescents old at the time, had orchestrated the battle that changed the course of the Dyne's life. (1, 2) Like all cats that have killed for the first time, the Rajah's son received a tattoo to mark his accomplishment, but since he was also part of the ruling family he got to choose a guardian out of any of the kittens his clan stole from their victims.

On the day of the choosing, Dyne opened his eyes for the first time.

Someone grabbed him from the scruff of his neck and lifted him away from his siblings. He dangled listlessly with his tail between his legs while his brothers and sisters called in alarm at the loss of one of their own. A cool, arrogant voice made his ears twitch irritably.

"I want him."

Dyne's eyelids opened a sliver, revealing a blurry, painful world. The first color he perceived was red, a flaming, angry red that burst outwards like a flower. It originated from a young kitling showing the beginnings of a thick mane of hair colored a crimson that hurt the kitten's newborn sight. (3) Two tattoos in the shape of teardrops decorated the area beneath the redhead's eyes, marking him as a killer. Feline irises an unholy shade of serpentine green regarded Dyne's furry frame with an unsettling gleam.

His name was Axel. Dyne hated him from the very beginning.

After he was chosen as Axel's guardian, or Jumi, he never saw or smelled his brothers or sisters ever again. (4) They were separated into different castes and raised as strangers. If he were to meet them today, he wouldn't recognize them as his family anymore. Kittens who had been stolen from other clans were never told who they were or where they had come from. The Chantry made them believe that it was fate that they were now part of the Spiral Claws. Even when they became old enough to learn the truth, the chance of rebellion or revenge was low because their religion enforced a sense of family that was hard for a lonely orphan to deny.

However, no matter how they tried to brainwash him, Dyne remained a spiteful kitling, though his hate only extended to the ruling family. Ironically, he had grown into a very talented Jumi and was considered the best guardian in the clan. The Chantry spent extra time with him to make him proud of the fact that he was protecting Axel, the sole heir of the Spiral Claws. In their presence, Dyne straightened his tail proudly and declared that he was honored that he had been picked since kittenhood for his position. Alone with Axel, he told the stupid redhead to lick his ass.

They never got along.

As they both grew older, Axel became an ambitious, bloodthirsty animal like his father, and Dyne became a cocky cat proud of his accomplishments as a guardian, even though he had yet to join the hateful redhead on the battlefield. In truth, he had no intention whatsoever of protecting the Rajah's son, and once this was discovered, he would probably be executed on the spot. Many times, Dyne thought of simply running away, but this was easier said than done.

To begin, he lived on a desert planet. Leaving the citadel's barriers would result in death from exposure in a matter of hours. Even if he managed to make it to another clan, they would never take him in. There was too big a chance that he could be a spy or an assassin. Only freshly born kittens were ever allowed to change clans for this reason. Another big thing that kept him from running away was the fact that he had been young and stupid enough to actually tell Axel to his face that he hated him. Now the Rajah's son kept an extra close eye on him to make sure that he never left the Spiral Claws. Not only was Dyne too good a Jumi to let go, but he still had to pay back all the years of disrespect he'd shown to the clan's heir.

As a result, Dyne was trapped in his life, and even though his loyalty was shaky, he was not executed for his impudence. In fact, it was expected that he would rebel, because it was a common thing for kitlings his age to do. However, that would soon change, because once Dyne was 72 crescents old his absolute fidelity to Axel, and extending from that, the clan, would be assured. The long awaited day of his reckoning would come when he finally reached Estrus.

In every kitling's life, there comes a time when they undergo a sexual awakening, termed the Estrus. It is an unavoidable, biological event that generally strikes around the 72nd crescent year. The Estrus is characterized by the production of pheromones and an intense, sexual yearning that marks the transition to adolescence for every cat.

In the months leading up to Estrus, the kitling begins to experience arousal and feelings of incompleteness. Seeking to fill this void, they search for a mate that they identify with. During this time, potential partners may shower the kitling with gifts to show their interest, or the youth itself may give trinkets to the one they want to couple with. If the affections are returned, the kitling spends every moment with its chosen suitor for the purpose of letting their bodies "read" the chemistry of their partners. Eventually, they begin to produce pheromones that are especially engineered to attract their lovers; usually detected as a pleasant smell that will incite an arousal.

After successful copulation and the ending of Estrus, the kitling - now considered a young cat - will feel complete and affectionate towards their lover. From that moment on, overwhelming feelings of protectiveness and caring will persevere towards the chosen cat, no matter how they may be treated by their partners in future life. Although the cycle of Estrus may repeat many times within the same year, no bond is as strong as the one established with the first mate.

Culturally, the Estrus was used to establish ties between families and friends. It was considered a wonderful time for kitlings to show another lucky cat how special they had become to them over time. New families often sprouted from these types of unions. However, when war tore Katina apart, the meaning of the Estrus changed. Instead, it became a way to tie the clans together and ensure loyalty among its members.

In order to promote this type of cohesiveness, a clan will force their kitlings to mate with a predetermined cat. Although these unions are involuntary, the same feelings of protectiveness and caring will still result from them. To achieve this successfully, once a kitling reaches its 72nd crescent they are forced to spend time with the partner that was chosen for them. This tricks their bodies into manufacturing pheromones and triggers secondary changes that cause them to be helplessly attracted to their suitors. In the end, the same bonds are formed even if they never felt any special regard for the one they were forced to mate.

Typically, everyone spent an Estrus with the Alpha of their caste. In Dyne's case, his first and most significant bond was to be made with Axel. The Rajah's son was looking forwards for the opportunity to finally wipe the sneer off his guardian's face when he subjected him to the most humiliating sexual practices in existence. When the time began to draw near, Axel saw fit to remind Dyne everyday that he would soon be humping his leg and begging for his cock.

At first, Dyne didn't believe that there was any force strong enough to make him overcome his hatred for Axel. However, as he witnessed his older friends go through Estrus and return completely changed, he began to worry. His first wakeup call came with Tsuz, another guardian who was in a similar predicament as himself: He also hated the guts of the person he had to protect. (5)

Before Tsuz began his Estrus, they used to meet at the bathhouse and playfully plot the killings of their nemeses while the slaves licked them clean. Dyne's friend was to be mated to Mura, the Alpha of the Guardian caste. (6) Although there mere mention of his chosen mate made the fur on Tsuz's tail rise, as time went on, he talked about Mura's assassination less and less.

Eventually, Tsuz's body became so sensitive that when anyone licked near his genitals he became hard and wet within moments. Dyne found it annoying, it was hard to talk to someone who was horny all the time. He would be discussing the finer points of slitting Axel's throat only to find that he was being ignored in favor of the slave that was sucking Tsuz cock until he stopped leaking cum.

"You know, we have harems too," muttered Dyne with an offended slant to his ears.

"Sorry," answered Tsuz with embarrassment. "My Estrus is going to hit any day now and just about everything makes me s-sensitive." Nevertheless, he wantonly turned on his back and spread his legs for the white haired cat taking such good care of him. Whimpers of delight accompanied the quick jerks of his hips, building in crescendo until Mura's name spilled from his lips.

Watching in a kind of horrid fascination, Dyne's curiosity dissolved into anger when his friend began to call for his enemy as if he were some kind of savior. "Are you listening to yourself? You were just planning to feed Mura his own tail five minutes ago!"

"I know!" Answered Tsuz in a voice strained by lust. "I hate him and I can't wait for him to fuck me, AH.."

On that evening, it was declared that Tsuz had begun his Estrus, and he spent the next three days with Mura. Anyone within the same wing of the building as the couple could plainly hear the guardian mewling in delight and begging for more. When it was over, Tsuz never spoke of killing Mura again and even shunned Dyne for entertaining such "kittenish thoughts." He said his life had been changed and that his mate was very important to him, even though Mura was the one responsible for killing Tsuz's older brothers because they were too old to be assimilated into the clan.

That scared the shit out of Dyne. As his own time drew near, Axel was constantly sniffing around him in hopes of smelling his inevitable victory. In mockery of the old traditions, the Rajah's son sent presents to convey his interest in the young Jumi. Slaves would come into the Dyne's room bearing the decapitated heads of Axel's victims and timidly murmur that they were signs of the heir's affection.

Needless to say, these gifts angered the Jumi. He would send them back with the message that he would rather choke on a hairball than ever submit to Axel. His vehement rejection of the Rajah's son became legendary within the citadel, and many well-meaning members of the clan would approach him and try to assuage his fears of the Estrus. However, none of them could convince Dyne that letting go of his hate was the right thing to do. To him, the bond resulting from the mating was just another form of slavery.

On top of that, he had drawn other conclusions about the current functioning of Katinan society. Every single cat was brainwashed by the Estrus, even Axel had to answer to the people he'd fucked. Every cat was a member of a long chain of matings that stretched to the oldest members of the clan. As long as each new generation was forced to couple with suitors from their citadels, the ensuing bonds would make it a thousand times more difficult to ever ally with another clan, or for that matter, find peace in the world of Katina. They would be doomed to be at war forever because every group was capable of only loving themselves.

When Dyne figured this out, he realized that fighting for the Spiral Claws, or any other clan for that matter, was a complete waste of time. It was at this point that he began to entertain the thought of leaving the planet entirely. The choice was difficult to make because the citadel was the only life he knew, and regardless of how he felt about the way things were run, there were cats that he cared about living in his home city.

In the end, Axel made it easy for Dyne to forget his misgivings and cement his resolve. Eventually the Rajah's son stopped sending heads and resorted to sexual toys as gifts. Manacles, whips, phallic objects that vibrated, blindfolds, gags; the list was endless. By far, the worst one Dyne received was a glass jar that came with the following note:

_When we are mated, I will make you fill this with milk everyday and drink it._

Axel did not mean the milk made for kittens.

As time went on, the chances for escape became ever more slim. Dyne was forced to accompany Axel wherever he went to ensure the success of their mating. Everyday, he ate with the clan's heir, slept in the same room with him and went to the same boring meetings or dangerous outings outside of the citadel. Sometimes, the Rajah's son would fetch someone from the harem and have sex with him or her in front of the Jumi while calling the slave "Dyne."

More often than not, the two were constantly fighting. Although Dyne had a lot of skill, he always ended as the loser in their scuffles. As much as he thought of murdering Axel, he was not an accomplished killer like the heir, nor did he have any true battle experience yet. That was to change one day, when it was decided that he was ready to earn his tattoos. For the first time, Dyne was to actually partake in the fighting outside of the citadel instead of waiting on the sidelines. The Rajah was preparing a team of soldiers and guardians to storm another city that had grown too weak to defend itself. Dyne would be joining Axel as his Jumi and help to pillage the enemy citadel in addition to his usual duties of protection.

On the morning of the skirmish, the kitling awoke to find the horror of all horrors waiting for him: his cock was hard. This had never happened before. It was a sure sign that his Estrus would be arriving very soon. With agonizing care, Dyne covered himself with a blanket and sneaked out of Axel's room with the most stealth a cat could muster. He crept his way through the empty hallways of their lair towards the bathhouse, where he awoke the first servant he could find with desperate little shakes.

Upon recognizing who was rousing her from slumber, the slave tilted her ears to the side and bowed to the floor; tail left limp with deference. "Does the guardian wish an early bath before today's battle?"

"N.. no, I.." With his ears drooped against the side of his head, Dyne pulled aside his blanket to reveal the erection hidden beneath. "Don't tell anybody. Just fix it before Axel finds out!"

"Oh!" The feline slave bore an expression that conveyed a mixture of sadness and joy. "Your Estrus has finally started to show. You will soon be an adult."

"I don't care about that! Just make it go away!"

The female cat shook her head sadly at the catboy. "Forgive me, but the Rajah's son has already forbidden us to cleanse you should this happen. I am sorry that he wishes you to suffer."

Stunned by this news, Dyne gaped at the slave as if she had just punched him. Without any servants to help him, he was left to deal with his stirrings and bereft feelings all alone. Unfortunately, it was considered a taboo for any of their species to masturbate; only the diseased and homeless wretches would resort to giving themselves pleasure. Later on in life, when he discovered Sora's activities in the shower, he had to repeat to himself "It's because he's human" over and over again to get over the disgust.

In addition to being denied relief, Dyne's excited state would be extremely easy to be discovered by another cat. Katinans are able to detect shifts in another's body temperature by merely standing in the same room, and their sense of smell was keen enough to detect the tiniest drop of sweat or seminal fluid. Therefore, as he dressed himself that morning, Dyne knew that Axel would soon find out that there were mere weeks left before their mating. No matter how much chain mail he donned, how loose he kept his leather pants or how much his hooded cloak hid his lithe frame, everyone would know.

All of his expectations were met during the mission briefing, which was held in an enormous conference room. Every Spiral Claw that was part of the excursion was listening attentively to the Rajah, each dressed in long black cloaks that hid their armor beneath. Some of them bore distinct silver patterns on the left lapel of their protective clothing, signifying that a Jumi who also bore the same symbol protected them.

When a pair of powerful arms coiled over Dyne's torso like a pair of boa constrictors, he did not need to see the intricate lattice shapes on the molester's cloak to know that it was Axel. Over the years, the Rajah's son had grown into a strapping cat; he was nearly a foot taller in humanoid form and very muscular. His hair had grown long enough to fan behind him in a wild mane that fit his explosive personality.

Dyne attempted to jerk away from Axel's vice-like grip and got smacked in the face by the heir's fluffy tail for his efforts. He continued to struggle until he saw that he was getting nowhere and then settled into a tense stillness.

Axel took a long, languid inhale of the air just above Dyne's choppy hair. "I smell the beginnings of desire," hissed the older cat in his deep, vibrating voice.

"Damn. I guess I should have cleaned better after taking that crap." Dyne earned a painful nip to one of his triangular ears for his disrespectful comment. He flattened them to the sides of his head in an effort to protect them from future bites. Across the room, Tsuz shook his head gravely at Dyne. It was a silent way of telling him to just calm down and take it, because an angered Axel was a frightening thing.

Aside from Tsuz, everyone else at the meeting studiously ignored what was going on. As part of the ruling family, Axel was allowed to do whatever he pleased. If he wanted to rape his guardian then and there, there was nothing that could be done about it.

Indeed, that seemed to be Axel's intention, because he unzipped Dyne's cloak and pushed his gloved fingers past the fabric. The Jumi's eyes widened when he realized the intention of this move, and he began to squirm violently in protest. Sadly, he could not free himself from the arm locked around his waist and arms, and he mewled in distress as his clothed erection was fisted painfully.

"You're not as annoying as you usually are," commented Axel with narrowed eyes. Usually Dyne would at least be attempting to bite him by now. "Could it be.." He roughly stroked the warm cock beneath his palm and was rewarded by the buckling of Dyne's knees. A secondary inhale of air near the collar of his Jumi's throat revealed that his clothing had trapped a very alluring scent.

Smiling rakishly, Axel gave Dyne the news of his triumphant discovery. "Blood is my favorite smell." Finally, his guardian's body was doing things he liked, including the production of pheromones meant for his pleasure. "Soon, I will know how much better it is when it's mixed with the scent of your cum."

"Nngh!" Dyne's hands clutched at Axel's cloak to keep from sagging further to the floor. Nobody looked their way; not a soul helped him as he continued to fall to his knees. His body shook with outrage at the situation. Those cats were supposed to be his clan brothers, but none would help him. Perhaps the only ones who would have really cared for him were long dead, murdered by the insolent dirty-fur that was touching him now. (7) The Spiral Claws took away the life he was supposed to have and gave him this poor excuse for one in its place.

"Do you hate me that much?" Axel murmured into the shell of Dyne's more humanoid ear. Although the kitling's tail was bowed submissively to the ground, it remained fuzzed out with aggression. "Soon, you will be incapable of hating me."

"H-hate," stuttered Dyne, who had shifted his triangular ears until they were pointed outwards and down. "I'm.. I'm excited.."

A suspicious eyebrow rose on Axel's face.

"I.. can't wait for you to f.. fu.. aa.. AAA.."

A wild grin of victory flashed on Axel's face. He thought that he would have to wait a couple more weeks, but it seemed that Dyne was one of those kitlings that got hit by the Estrus like a jolt of lightning.

Since the yowling from their corner was hard to ignore, they finally gained the attention of the other cats. Axel's father was less then pleased, and he addressed his son in a curt voice. "Your Jumi picks the worst time to go into Estrus. You'll have to stay behind and take care of it."

"Yes father." The heir bowed to the Rajah and forced his moaning guardian to do the same. Afterwards, Axel put Dyne into a headlock and dragged him out of the meeting room. As they vanished through the automatic doors, the mission briefing ended and the cats dispersed for their departure.

With eager strides, Axel dragged Dyne through the citadel. To humiliate his guardian, they went through crowded areas so that everyone could see how bad the Jumi wanted to be fucked by the cat he hated. Many clan members breathed in relief that the tension between them would soon be over, while others wished the pair a satisfying coupling.

Unfortunately, Axel intended no privacy for this spectacle. They stopped at one of the many corridors that connected buildings within the citadel and quickly emptied it of other cats with one warning hiss from the Rajah's son. The place was perfect, instead of walls the hallway was encased by see through material that allowed anyone from outside to see everything that they were doing.

"Here, where everybody can see you, brat."

A hard shove made Dyne fall to his hands and knees. His tail dragged on the floor as he squirmed with anticipation. Outside, none of Katina's moons were visible; it was pitch black and perfect for the platoon of ships preparing to exit the shields. Their hallway shone like a lonely lantern among the darkness of the citadel.

"Take everything off." Axel followed his own command by stripping off his cloak, revealing his own set of chain mail and leathers beneath. His spiteful jade eyes fixed on the kitling at his feet, who was taking much too long to follow a simple order.

Dyne only seemed capable of mewling pitifully as he writhed on the floor. Annoyed by this setback, Axel took it upon himself to unzip his Jumi's cloak and yank it off. Once he was free of that heavy fabric, Dyne dutifully raised his arms for the extraction of the chain mail. A low, desirous growl rumbled from Axel's throat as he took hold of the kitling's armor and lifted it upwards, revealing the smooth, creamy skin of his mate covered in.. 

..Blood?

"Unnngh Axel, please hurry, I need this, I need you in me, I need --" In that moment of perplexity, the sharp "snick" of magnetic manacles being activated echoed throughout the corridor. Beneath the bunched chain mail that Axel had been pulling over Dyne's head, the guardian had activated a gift sent to him by the Rajah's son weeks ago. His most hated enemy was now shackled securely to the guardrail. "AaaAAaa I need yooooou to SHUT UP."

Everything became clear in that instant. Dyne had been faking his own Estrus all along, and even went so far as to cover himself him blood to fool Axel into believing his pheromones were active. The eyes of the clan's heir widened with murderous anger. "You crooked tailed little deceiver." An animalistic hiss added venom to his words.

Wordlessly, Dyne kneed the older cat in the groin. While Axel doubled over in pain, he slipped the rest of the way out of his chain mail. After scrambling to his feet, he fisted a handful of the heir's wild mane and forced his head up. "That was for my parents." Then, he shoved Axel's face down to collide with his knee, and the two met with a solid crack. "And that is for my brothers and sisters!"

Blood pooled in Axel's mouth, and he spat it at the Jumi's feet. "You little dung eater, I should have let you starve to death."

Bearing a superior look, Dyne cracked his knuckles as if he intended to take another shot at the vulnerable cat. "That's right, you should have. Instead, I guess you'll just have to stay here, where everybody can see you." After one last, hateful sneer, the Jumi sprinted as fast as he could out of that hallway.

"You can't delay the inevitable Dyne!" Despite the pain he was in, Axel concentrated his power so that he could morph into his feline form. Once he was transformed, his paws would be too small to fit in the manacles. "You're MINE!"

_Never._

After the shock of waking up with a hard on, Dyne had concocted his plan for escape. Now that everything had been set into motion, there was no turning back. He tore through the citadel at top speed, ignoring the bewildered cats that witnessed his flight. He managed to lose Axel among the buildings of the mazelike complex, but only because the redheaded cat erroneously assumed that Dyne would be heading for the desert.

Dyne's real destination was the hanger. Thankfully, he'd kept his mouth shut about wanting to leave Katina entirely, so this move was completely unexpected. Although his people knew of other planets and species, they were too xenophobic to do more than trade with aliens outside of their world. He was probably the only kitling crazy enough to attempt what he was about to do.

Before entering the hanger, he caused a small explosion just outside of the bay using the same prismatic missiles that were supposed to aid him in his first real battle. (8) This triggered the fire alarm, which caused every cat in the area to rush to the scene in order to put out the conflagration. With the bay emptied, Dyne was free to sneak inside the hangar and hijack the first available spacecraft.

Just as his vessel began to hover off the ground, an infuriated Axel arrived at the bay. When passersby told him that they saw Dyne heading away from the city gates, he suspected that the hanger would be his location. Clearly, his guess had been correct. Angry orders to close the shields to the city were hissed at any mechanic that was not tied up with the fire.

"Forgive me my lord," said a bewildered cat, "but we can not close the shields while the Rajah's force is exiting the citadel."

In his rush to recapture his Jumi, Axel had forgotten that his father was leading a skirmish out of the city. If the shields were closed now, half of the soldiers would be stuck inside, time would be lost, and there would be a lot of angry cats to answer to. Apparently, his guardian had outsmarted him completely.

As Dyne's ship ambled towards the exit, the Rajah's son glared at the spacecraft with a silent promise of vengeance. Then, he commanded the mechanics to prepare another vessel, and quickly if they valued their lives. In less than a minute, he was onboard a ship and chasing the deserter through the skies.

Dyne didn't expect Axel to unravel his plan that fast. As soon as the computers detected pursuit vehicles, he hit the thrusters and shot his ship into the stratosphere. The citadel became a tiny speck below, surrounded by endless, cracked sand stained a deep blue with darkness. Enemy ships followed his ascent, arising from the shadows like angels of death come to drag him back down.

His computer calmly told him that the pursuit ships were charging their weapons. Freedom waited just beyond his fingertips and slavery nipped at his heels. For Dyne, the choice was obvious; he would never go back and allow himself to be Axel's chew toy for the rest of his life. So, in one final act of desperation, the ship was punched into warp. No coordinates were set, which would make his flight path harder to follow. Dyne didn't care if he crashed into a meteorite, got sucked into a black hole or flew into the burning core of a sun, wherever he ended up, it was going to be liberty or death.

For hours, he pushed his spacecraft until it was almost completely out of power. When it finally lost the ability to warp, it emerged from hyperspace inside a rampaging meteor storm. On the bright side, there was no sign of the pursuit ships; they weren't as keen on riding to their deaths in the same manner as Dyne had. On the bad side, his ship was caught in the same gravitational field that was pulling the meteorites.

Dyne switched the controls to manual and tried his best to maneuver through the space rocks and prevent them from pounding the hull of his vessel. However, his ship was low on power and was falling fast. The meteorites shared the same fate; they glowed white-hot and left streaks that surrounded the spacecraft like a magic veil. On the viewscreen, a blue and green planet shone through the darkness like a jewel, and pulled the spacecraft in with its powerful gravity.

On the beach, children watched the stars fall.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


The crash should have killed him, but by the same miracle that helped Dyne survive the warp, he was still alive but in a lot of pain. Agonizing pain. He wished that death would hurry up and take his pathetic soul already. He was so tired.

For weeks, he was as blind and helpless as he had been when he was first born. However, instead of warm fur and a gentle purr to assure him, there were tender hands and encouraging voices. Over time, his wounds healed, and slowly he opened his eyes to see where he was for the first time.

Before him was a very cluttered room filled with interesting dangling things from the ceiling and upraised structures he later learned was called "shelves" and "table." Movement stirred from what he presumed was a bed, and a tailless creature emerged from the blankets with a sleepy yawn. It looked in his direction and let out a little cry of surprise.

When it approached his bed, Dyne recognized the smell of his caretaker immediately. This spiky haired alien before him had been the one to save him. He watched in fascination as this creature chirruped something nice sounding and then reached for his ears.

In another lifetime, he had awoken from a dark world and met a devil. Now, on this new planet, he opened his eyes and found himself facing an angel. Dyne stared at Sora's pouted, cock sucking lower lip and knew this had to be heaven.

Aside from his first hormone induce opinion, Dyne knew that he was in a good place now. Sora and Kairi returned to him the kittenhood that had been stolen away by the Spiral Claws. Everyday, he was fussed over, fed milk and treated like a precious object. Affection was showered over him in the form of presents, kisses and cooing that he presumed was the human version of a purr. His new owners, though at first he thought of them as Alphas, always wanted to play with him; a big difference from his constant Jumi training or endless lectures on how he would soon enjoy sharing his body with people he hated.

However, the most wonderful thing about them was that they wanted nothing in return. They were happy simply because he existed. It was the most wonderful time in Dyne's life. Finally, he felt as if were in the one part of the universe that allowed him to pick his own destiny. Ironic that the name of the archipelago he had crashed on was called "Destiny Islands."

He decided that this would be his new home. Learning their language was an easy task thanks to a microchip that had been implanted in his head when he was a kitten. All guardians had the operation done because there was no telling when knowing another tongue could mean the difference between life and death. With this technology and a couple of nights of watching TV, he was able to get a good grasp of human communication and culture.

When he felt healed enough to morph again, his days were filled with excitement at the prospect of finally being able to speak to them. To tell them that they would have the honor of being his mates, though he hadn't decided which would be his first or second yet. Dyne waited for the perfect moment to reveal himself; in the meantime expressing his interests in the form of little flirtations. Sora was always so surprised whenever he found his clothes missing after showering. Too bad Reno forced Dyne into transfiguring to his two-legged form to protect his master; he had been hoping for more romantic circumstances.

As unusual as it was to take another species for a mate, Dyne couldn't care less about what his people thought. They could fight themselves out of existence for all he cared. He had given Sora his purr, the greatest expression of his most intimate feelings for him. In answer, the boy had said, "I think I like you too." That was when he knew that everything he wanted was here.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


What an idiot he had been. He was so smitten by his own feelings that he didn't notice that Sora didn't think of him as more than a cat. _Stupid stupid stupid._

What was he going to do now? Where would he go? There was no telling if his ship was still functional. As if to remind him of his current predicament, ocean waves rocked Dyne's boat, causing its bottom to grind against the sand below. Reflexively, his hands shot to the sides of the vessel to steady himself. Of course, how could he forget about the water? Just thinking about it made him tremble.

Luckily, an annoyed, curt voice distracted Dyne from his phobia. "What are you doing in my boat?"

Canting his head upwards, Dyne found himself facing Riku, which caused his expression to wrinkle with distaste. He disliked this human boy from the beginning for a couple reasons. One, his arrogance reminded him too much of Axel, and two, they were always in competition for Sora's attention.

Instead of answering the Riku's question, Dyne countered with one of his own. "What are you doing out so late?"

"Like that's any of your business." Unwilling to let his boat drift off with the intruder, Riku planted one foot inside the vessel and used his leg to drag it back onto higher sand. "I'm surprised you're not screwing Sora's life over right now."

"Hey, the kid asked for it when he took me in. He knew there were going to be certain responsibilities." If he were still in feline form, Dyne would have puffed his chest at Riku. Screwing Sora's life over, pah! In his opinion, his presence made the boy's everyday existence more interesting. What did Riku do, make his best friend shine his trophies for him? Please.

Once his boat was safely stranded on the beach again, Riku seated himself on the prow and fixed a glare on his best friend's "houseguest." "Sora doesn't know what he's doing half the time. He thinks everything is going to be ok as long as he ignores the things that bother him."

"Heh, you can say that again," muttered Dyne. Memory of being stuck in the tool shed made a bit of his anger return. "But it's his own fault if he wants to be a chump all his life."

"Shut up," snapped Riku. He did not want to hear anyone talking crap about his best friend. "You don't know anything about Sora," or the reasons as to why he folded in on himself when life got too hard to swallow. Things had never been the same ever since Sora's father died.

"Give me a break, I know as much as you do." Dyne flashed a challenging stare at Riku. Sure, Sora had rejected his advances, but aside from that they had been pretty close companions. Even if he came away from that relationship empty handed, at least Dyne had the satisfaction of rubbing Riku's face into the fact that his best friend was almost stolen.

Sadly, his attempts at crushing Riku's ego were a failure. Instead, the boy sneered at Dyne, completely unfazed by his boast. "You've only known him for a few weeks, I've been with him all his life. You think you know shit, but you don't. You're just as blind as he is."

"Oh really?" The temptation to lash his tail back and forth was great. Beneath the cap, Dyne's ears had flattened aggressively against his skull. "Did you know that he keeps an old petrified piece of gum wrapped up in silver paper inside a secret hole under his bed?"

With a scoff, Riku answered the question in addition to posing one of his own. "I shared that gum with him when he was 5 years old. I have the other half in my room. Did you know that his favorite food is coconut shrimp?"

Dyne had never seen a shrimp before in his life, though he might have heard of it in a commercial. Instead of embarrassing himself with a negative answer, he countered with another question. "Did you know that he doesn't like the different foods on his plate to touch?"

"Stupid, everyone knows that about Sora. Did you know that he always takes hot showers, even though it's a hundred degrees out?"

"Did you know that when he's taking a really long shower, it's because he's jacking off furiously?"

That last question rendered a stunned look from Riku. Apparently, he hadn't known that one. "How can you lie - "

"Oh ho ho, it's no lie." Dyne smirked at the disbelief on the human's face. "Bet you're so glad to hear it too."

"Just what are you trying to say?" There was a note of warning in Riku's voice.

"Please. I'm not as stupid as Sora. I know you want him." Dyne's rival was given a searching look; one of those up and down stares that dismissed him as quickly as it assessed him. Obviously, he wasn't impressed by what he saw.

"That's it. Get off my boat. I'm through listening to this stupidity." Riku stood up as if he intended to physically toss Dyne out of his boat if he didn't get a move on.

Despite the overt threat, Dyne calmly stood from his seat as if he wasn't in any danger at all. In fact, a knowing grin painted his lips. "Sorry, I guess I was reading into things too much. Guess this means Sora's all mine then."

Before the smiling catboy made it completely out of the boat, Riku planted a hand against his chest to stop him from venturing further. Moonlight simmered in his eyes; tinting the aquamarine iris bright silver. "He's just a kid."

"He's half a man," countered Dyne in an even voice. "I don't know what age you consider people here to be sexually viable, but I think once he started jacking off he was ready for what I have to offer."

"You're an idiot if you think that's all it takes to be ready."

"Whether he's ready or not, if his body is saying yes, nothing else will matter."

"The body is nothing without the heart." Although this was true, Riku had to silently admit that temptation could overshadow the sentiments of the heart. That kind of seduction was the worst kind of threat to Sora because it was neither good nor evil. Without a clear distinction between these two things, he could see his best friend clinging to a physical relationship and becoming blind to the people that cared for all of him, not just his body. That would hurt Kairi, as well as himself. Desperate to avoid that situation, he tried to instill some kind of morality into Dyne. "Without the heart, it's meaningless."

Perhaps for humans it was that way. Currently, Dyne's own species didn't go about relationships in the same manner. The process was always thought of in reverse: the body is conquered first and the heart followed afterwards. However, now that he had been enlightened, Dyne's eyes widened as he was struck by an epiphany. "So if I want him, I have to win his heart first."

How insidiously complicated that was! It wouldn't be an automatic selection like on Katina. This.. this was competition on a grand scale. Against every potential suitor out there, he would have to somehow prove his superiority - without relying on rank or prowess - if he wanted to claim Sora as his own. No wonder humans birthed such tiny litters; an average of 1-3 compared to Katina's own 15-20. With so many choices and such a complicated mating ritual, it was a wonder if anyone coupled at all!

Unfortunately, there was no way for Riku to know if he was getting through to Dyne. He never imagined that someone would interfere in his friendship with Sora in the way the new kid had. Up until now, his biggest worry was that his best friend would start liking Kairi back, but he had already prepared himself to let them be should that ever happen. He trusted the girl to take care of Sora, but he had zero faith in Dyne.

On top of that, somehow Dyne found out about his special feelings for Sora. The only other person who knew was Kairi, and she would never tell anybody his secret, except maybe the cat. (Little did he know..) Riku figured that either the blonde-headed kid was very observant, or he had been slipping up in the way he acted around Sora.

Eventually, Riku wanted to tell Sora how he felt, but he was waiting for his friend to mature a little first. However, now that there was troublesome competition on the loose, he wondered if he should make his move now before Dyne got even closer. If Sora was going to learn sinful things from another boy, then the task should be done by someone who cared and understood him, not by some random kid who was more trouble than he was worth.

Both boys shared a measuring look. Each considered themselves deserving of Sora's heart and all the things that went with it. The unspoken challenge hung thickly in the air.

"So," began Dyne in a pleasant, light voice, "since you're not interested in him - "

"You'll never win," interrupted Riku with the same, confident grin he had given the Dyne just before they raced around the track.

"You and Sora are more alike than I give you credit for," mused Dyne as he began to walk off. Strangely enough, talking to Riku made him feel better. It made Dyne realize that the problem was not that he wasn't good enough for Sora, it was that Sora was picky. Whether this was true or not, he was set on trying to win the boy's affections again. He couldn't leave Earth without at least giving Riku a run for his money. "See you around, Ri-ku."

"Hmph, see ya." There was a change of plans on Riku's part. Instead of leaving to brood on the play island, he was going home to think of how to approach Sora. In his conversation with Dyne, he'd found the answer to his problems. If he wanted to get his best friend away from the Turk's line of fire, he had to get him away from Dyne. To get him away from Dyne, Sora had to become interested in him. Like all people who got into intense relationships, the boy would completely forget about the rest of the world and stop hanging around people who weren't good for him.

Simple. Right?

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Nestled within the sheets of his bed, Sora stared up at the ceiling; thinking about things. Distantly, he realized that he'd been crying a lot lately, which was strange because it was very unlike him. In a way, he wanted to blame it on Dyne since it would give him a reason not to miss him so much or feel so miserable over his absence.

A part of him knew that Dyne leaving was for the best; there was just no way they could keep lying to everyone and get away with it. On the other hand, he also felt the urge to run after him and convince him to stay. Despite everything they'd been through, Dyne had become his second skin in the time they'd been together. Without him, his home felt painfully lonely again. Still, he didn't dare attempt to keep the alien to his side, because he knew he deserved this ache.

Suddenly, the bedroom door creaked open, and Sora bolted upright upon hearing it. His eyes were wide and luminous in the dark, and he held his breath upon spying the pale figure enter his bedroom. He didn't speak, and did not dare to move in case it would disturb the apparition before his eyes.

Obviously, Sora was surprised to see him back. Dyne removed the hat from his head and unraveled his tail from around his waist. With quiet strides, he walked to the edge of the bed and hovered there for a few indecisive moments. Then, the suspense was broken when he rudely flopped down on the mattress, causing the brunette beside him to bounce with the impact. Fixing his gaze on some distant object in the room, the catboy folded his arms and affected a somber air. "I decided to stay for a little while longer."

Elation shone in Sora's eyes, but the emotion halted before it could grow any further. There was a "but" hanging in the air.

"Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean I forgive you. I don't think I ever can, even though you probably have no idea what you did."

Turning his gaze to the blankets, Sora's lower lip tucked outwards in a sad pout. His voice was soft and timid as he spoke, "I'm sorry. I really.. don't know much about things like that at all. Not even with other people." Admitting it made him feel ashamed. After all, he was fourteen going on fifteen very soon. Even Selphie knew more about sex and sexuality than he did, which was saying a lot.

"Why is that?" Dyne shifted slightly so that he could look at Sora. There was no way the boy could be as innocent as he claimed. Naive he could buy, but innocence was a fragile thing that was easily destroyed as soon as one turned on the TV. Somewhere under that spiky haired head, there had to be not so clean ideas floating around.

"I'm just not interested." There was a bit of an edge entering Sora's voice. He suspected that Dyne had switched tactics and was now trying to convince him into doing sexual things with him.

Sora's stubbornness made Dyne believe that he was hiding something. After all, one does not masturbate in the morning and think of butterflies and fairies while they do it. "Not interested," repeated the catboy in a bland voice, before continuing with a bit more vigor, "or just not found someone to be interested in?"

"I can't Dyne." Before his pet could lead this to where he thought it was going, Sora decided to set the record straight now. "You're not a monster, you're my friend. And I would miss you, if.. if you went away. But I can't.." Trailing off with that statement, he hoped that Dyne wouldn't hold this rejection against him.

Thankfully, offense wasn't the reaction that happened. Instead, Dyne peered at Sora's face with a perfectly blank expression. "You can just say so if I'm ugly."

"You're not ugly."

"Then you don't like guys?"

"I've never even thought of it."

"Then you'd rather I hook up with Kairi then?"

"No!" The answer came a little harsher than he meant it to, and Sora pursed his lips afterwards as if that would somehow take the word back.

"I think I'm getting warmer." Dyne smiled cheekily at Sora, who suddenly felt a need to hide beneath the blankets. "Sweet, innocent Kairi," he demurred in a softer voice as he began to creep closer to the boy. "You'd like to think of her as innocent. I bet you like to think of yourself and Riku as innocent too."

As his pet neared his personal space, Sora felt another prickling begin between his shoulder blades. However, he was determined not to fall for that feeling twice. "You're not going to start acting all weird again, are you?"

"Mmm?" Dyne's ears flicked to and fro, as if Sora's words were bouncing all around the room instead of being directed towards him. Resting his chin on his on the boy's shoulder, he continued speaking despite obvious distraction. "Oh, I won't be that horny again for another two weeks."

"W-wait, it's going to happen again?" Sora gave his pet a horrified look.

"Again and again, until someone satisfies me." Dyne's tail playfully curled and uncurled behind him. "So you better watch out Sora, I just might take from you what I want after all."

"That's really not fair." Sora's brows creased together with stubborn worry. "That's not the way it's done here. Doing.. doing it is something you save for a person who's special to you."

"I see. I'm not special."

"You are, but see there's different kinds of special - " Sora's explanation stuttered to a halt when Dyne gave his cheek a tiny lick.

Then, the catboy settled into the bed beside Sora and hogged the pillows for himself. "That's ok. Just know that you are special to me, and in that way."

After a few moments of staring in disbelief, Sora sighed in exasperation. Dyne was impossible, and he was too tired and strung out to keep talking to him. Sora wanted to curl up himself, but distrust at his pet's intentions kept him at bay.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything to you while you sleep." The wry grin on the Dyne's face probably wasn't very convincing.

Nevertheless, Sora felt tired enough to risk it, so he laid down beside his pet. As soon as he settled, Dyne snuggled up beside him; uncharacteristically remaining in his humanoid form instead of returning to the feline that the boy was more comfortable with. "I'm still the same cat," he reminded in a gentle voice.

Following this statement was a stretch of silence, in which Sora peered over at his blonde friend. Then, he timidly reached over and gently brushed his fingers over his pet's cheek. Dyne closed his eyes at the contact and emitted a rumbling purr. The sound enveloped Sora and calmed his trepidation towards his companion. Allowing himself to be lulled by the gentle rumbling, his eyes drooped closed of their own accord.

_Dyne really is.. the same cat,_ Sora realized dreamily. The only difference was that there were so many layers to him; so many sides to his life that he had yet to see. After all they'd been though, he was still the same slightly annoying guy. Yet he was also playful, protective, prideful, mischievous, and now.. well. He didn't know what to call Dyne's horniness. Maybe things would make better sense when he wasn't so sleepy.

Long after the fingers on his face slackened with sleep, Dyne remained awake and watchful over Sora. His tail draped forwards so that its end could wrap around the boy's wrist, which had fallen to his neck with deep slumber.

Dyne had his own thinking to do, and he directed his thoughts to Sora even though they could not be heard. Maybe he hoped that they would somehow penetrate the boy's dreams and make him understand where he was coming from a little better.

_Sora,  
  
I've been thinking a lot about your world and how it is so different from mine. Here, master and slave, or owner and pet, have completely different meanings.  
  
When I first wandered around this island to see how other pets lived, I was surprised that the animals here allow themselves to be caged. But then I realized that they aren't trapped at all, these places are their homes and they stay by choice. In exchange, all their masters want is their companionship. Their friendship with their pets brings them a feeling of peace and happiness.  
  
I know that is what you want from me too. To be a secret friend that will bring you warmth when the world outside gets too cold. As the embodiment of all your childhood fantasies, I give you a way to escape everything.  
  
But Sora...  
  
You can't live forever inside a toy box. Someday, you have to come out. I am the exact opposite of what you need right now.  
  
Don't worry though.  
  
I'll show you that life isn't so scary. That it's not so lonely. That you and me, even though we're both cowards who run away, we're really strong enough to face these things.  
  
And if you don't believe that..._  
  


Dyne reached beneath Sora's extended arm, stretching his own out until his fingers could grace the other's cheek.

_...then I'll make you._

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


(1) Rajah: The leader of the clan. In this case, Axel's father. Refer to Dyne's Flowchart for a better understanding.  
  
(2) Crescents: This is what they call a solar year in Katina. This name was derived after the way the planet's seven moons come into alignment once every solar year. They do, in fact, form a "crescent" in their sky.  
  
(3) Kitling: Another word for the "tween" years of a cat's life. In general, their life is divided into the following stages: Kitten, Kitling, Young Cat, Adult Cat.  
  
(4) Jumi: Stole this word from Legend of Mana.  
  
(5) Tsuz: I stole this name from Tsuzuki, from Yami no Matsuei.  
  
(6) Mura: And this name was stolen from Muraki, also from Yami no Matsuei.  
  
(7) Dirty-fur: This is considered an insult in Katina.  
  
(8) Prismatic Missles: Anyone who has seen the Unknown Battle from Final Mix might know what these are. The prismatic missles are these lazer-like beams that shoot out towards Sora. They are also featured in the final battle sequence of Kingdom Hearts 2.  
  
  
  
**To be continued.**  
  
  



	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Author** : Cold Silence  
>  **E-Mail** : writer.coldsilence@gmail.com  
>  **Pairings** : Riku + Kairi + Sora, Sora x BHK. (BHK = Blonde Headed Kid from KH II)  
>  **Warnings** : AU, Yaoi, Het, Furs, Dubious Consent. OOC Roxas due to the fandom personality he was given before information on his character was released with KH2.  
>  **Webpage** : https://coldsilence.tumblr.com/post/433113072/index
> 
> **Special Note** : This fic has relationships with things that have tails. Also, this story was started before Roxas's name was revealed, hence why he is named differently in this fic. Don't worry though, this actually fits well with what I have planned for him in the end.  
>   
>   
> 

**Fuzzy Love**  
- _Chapter Eight_ -  
  


In order to gain Sora's affections, Dyne could not be seen as a flawed individual. He had to be perfect in every way, perhaps even surpass the limits of flawlessness since his competition was none other than Riku of Destiny Islands. By any means necessary, Sora had to become attracted to him.

Therefore, in order to reach perfection, Dyne stood in front of the one obstacle to his goal. Before him, a porcelain sink gleamed with a basin full of water. As he stared into it, he could see his grim and hesitant reflection wavering at him from the liquid's surface. His fear of water was his biggest flaw on this planet, so he chose to face it head on for the sake of his cathood.

Carefully, Dyne lifted one finger and attempted to get it near the bowl. The closer the single digit inched towards its destination, the more it trembled and the lower his cat ears drooped. His eyes squinted as if the sink was the center of a burning sun, charring his retinas until all he could do was avert his gaze. By sheer force of will, the pad of his fingertip touched the cool liquid. The tiny ripples that radiated outwards from the disturbance were like monstrous tsunamis to the poor alien. Dyne immediately snatched his hand away from the sink before it somehow sucked him in and drowned him.

Feverishly, the catboy licked the brave finger as if it needed soothing from the ordeal it had just endured. Getting this far with just a sink of water was a miracle for him, but he had a long way to go if he ever wanted to face the ocean.

"Dyne? What are you doing in there?"

At the sound of Sora's voice, Dyne became shifty eyed. There was no need for the boy to know about his embarrassing training sessions with the bathroom sink. "What do you think I'm doing in here?" To accentuate his words, Dyne flushed the toilet with his tail, which conveniently covered the noise of the sink draining when he unplugged that as well.

"For almost an hour?" Inside the bedroom, an incredulous look washed over Sora's face. Whatever it was that aliens did at the toilet for over an hour, he did not want to know.

With a cringe, Dyne realized that it was true; it had taken him that long just to coax himself to touch a sink full of water. Next time, he had to be more discreet.

When Dyne finally opened the bathroom door, he spied Sora brushing his hair in front of the mirror. The boy was practically glowing with excitement and for good reason: Today was his birthday. Although it was still very early in the morning, Sora had already put on his best clothes as well as his biggest smile for the occasion.

He's already forgotten what Kairi and Riku want to hear after today. Dyne shook his head at Sora's selective memory. Sadly, he had to admit that some of the things Riku had said about his best friend a few nights ago were true; he liked to ignore uncomfortable things too much. "You look good."

"Really?" Pleased by Dyne's compliment, Sora smiled happily to himself. However, the expression vanished when he remembered his pet's attraction to him. A light pout framed his lips upon realizing that the praise was just a disguised flirt. "You're just saying that."

"Maybe." Dyne's tail drifted close to the ground and made the slow, sweeping movements of a kitling trying to shyly entice a mate into noticing him. "I can't help it if that's how you look, in my eyes."

Such sweet crooning made a red flush color Sora's cheeks. To hide his embarrassment, he pretended to be interested in the bristles of his brush.

Although Sora's shy reactions were always amusing, Dyne took pity on his distress and changed the topic. "So, what do you humans do for this birthday thing?"

Grateful that his pet had stopped hitting on him, Sora stopped pretending to be interested in his brush and wheeled to face Dyne with a grin. "Birthdays are the best things ever! You get to have a huge party and all your friends come to see you. There's going to be food, and music, and I get all kinds of presents!"

"Sounds interesting." Indeed, Dyne's tail had begun to lift at the prospect of having fun with Sora and Kairi together. "Where do you get all the presents from?"

"My friends and family. I bet Riku got me something really cool!"

"Your friends?" Suddenly, Dyne's ears tilted off to the sides with chagrin. "Why didn't anybody tell me that we're supposed to bring gifts? I would have gotten something too." Damn, now Riku had even more of an edge on him. 

"Don't worry about it, it's not like you can help it." Sora gave his pet a hidden glance. "You came back, and that's enough of a present for me."

Normally, Dyne would have pounced on Sora after hearing such a nice thing come out of his mouth. Instead, he couldn't help but still the movements of his tail due to an impending sadness. "Sora, I can only stay for a little while. Remember what I said about people from Katina not finding me? Well it turns out that they can. I really do have to leave."

Interestingly, this news didn't hit Sora as hard as Dyne would have expected. In truth, the boy had been thinking about his pet's eventual departure ever since he'd callously locked the alien in the tool shed. After much thought, it became evident that staying together like they were was not going to work out. Whether it was because Sora was too frightened of the emotions directed towards him or that dangerous aliens were going to follow Dyne to Destiny Islands, it didn't matter. The outcome was the same: The planet just wasn't ready for the likes of catboys. "I know. You said you were only going to stay for a little while longer." For a moment, Sora looked as if he would be overcome with sadness, but he bravely fought it away and flashed his pet a smile. "But at least we can make the most out of the time we have together. Right?"

Pleased by Sora's show of inner strength, Dyne's tail lifted to a high stance of approval. "Right, though I kind of want to ask you a favor first. I need to get back to the island you found me in. Do you mind being my taxi?"

"No, I'll take you. If nobody sleeps over, we can even do it tonight."

"Good." Sora barely got a chance to smile before he was pounced by Dyne and subjected to a thorough licking.

"ARRGH Dyne!" Thankfully, Sora was able to catch his balance before he ended up flat on the floor. Although he protested against the pink tongue laving his face, he was secretly happy to be back in Dyne's favor again.

A knock at the door disrupted their bonding. One of Dyne's cat ears tilted towards the barrier as Cloud's voice floated through the wood. "Sora, mind stepping out for a minute?"

Annoyed at the mere fact that Cloud was talking to him, Sora stubbornly called out "In a minute!" just to make the surfer wait. Meanwhile, Dyne delivered one last, less than innocent swipe of his tongue beneath the boy's lip before transforming to his feline form.

Reflexively, Sora caught his pet mid-change before he fell to the floor. By this time, Dyne was well used to the boy's fumbling every time he did a surprise body shift while they were in contact, so he continued to paw and nuzzle Sora's chest without missing a beat. Too harried to reflect on whether his pet was being flirty or affectionate, Sora allowed his cat to do as he pleased while he was occupied with the task of opening the bedroom door.

On the other side, Cloud was waiting with his usual air of laid back coolness. Upon finally being allowed to see his girlfriend's son instead of a door in his face, he eyed the kid for clues as to what took him so long to come out. The only evidence he could spy was the nuzzling cat in his arms. "I need help down at the docks. Your mom said that I could ask you."

"What?" As Sora stared at his mom's boyfriend in disbelief, he reached down to pull one of Dyne's claws off his shirt. It had been sneaking suspiciously close to a nipple. "But it's my birthday! My friends will be here any minute."

"It'll only take an hour. 'Ness said that it was ok."

A scowl marched its way over Sora's face. Did his own mother forget his birthday? Figures, she was probably so wrapped up in "Cloudy-wowdie" that the woman completely overlooked what day it was. He wanted to tell Cloud to find someone else, but he could already see his mother yelling at him for turning down the wishes of her precious boyfriend. Life was unbelievably unfair. "Fine. But just an hour."

"Good enough." Unperturbed by Sora's attitude, the man remained maddeningly calm throughout their conversation. "You might want to leave your cat behind."

"Dyne can come," stated Sora, even though he was well aware that Dyne didn't like to go anywhere near water. If it meant getting the chance to contradict Cloud, he would have added that they needed to give his pet a shower and dress him in pink ribbons before leaving too.

"Make sure he doesn't go overboard then. I'll be outside." With that, Cloud left the vicinity of Sora's room for the front porch.

During the course of the conversation, Dyne had stopped pawing at Sora's shirt and huddled down in his arms. Judging by the way his ears tilted to the back of his cranium, he was displeased at the thought of going on a boat.

"Don't make that face! You have to go on a boat sooner or later if you want to get on the other island. Besides, I won't let anything happen to you. Just close your eyes if it really starts to bother you." To add sugar to the agreement, Sora lightly rubbed his pet's flanks.

Sadly, Dyne couldn't say no when Sora was touching him like that. The kid always knew how to stroke him the right way - however innocent the touch was intended to be.

Just in case, Sora stored some clothes for his pet inside his book bag. This was brought with him to Cloud's jeep, which he hopped into as if he didn't feel odd every time he looked outside and saw it parked in front of his house. Cloud started the car, and soon they were driving towards the eastern part of the island. 

Although Dyne had a huge phobia of water, he proved to have no problems with sticking his head out of a fast moving vehicle. The headwind was powerful enough to invert his ears and blow his whiskers until they were completely flattened against his face.

"Your mom would kill you if she saw you letting your cat do that." Even so, there was a look of amusement in Cloud's eyes at Dyne's behavior. It was almost like it thought it was a dog.

"Dyne knows how to handle himself. Right kitty?" Sora chuckled when his pet slapped his leg with his tail for calling him "kitty." Then, he stretched a hand outside and spread his fingertips to catch the wind. All the way to the docks, his palm rode the air currents while he imagined that it was himself cutting through the breeze.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Unlike the usual spot where the kids kept their rowboats, the adults had their own harbor on the far end of the island where they stored their more modern motorboats. As soon as they arrived, Sora grabbed his things, tucked Dyne into the crook of his arm and went straight for the pier where Cloud kept his small fleet of research ships and leisure boats.

"Not that way, Sora." Cloud pointed in an entirely different direction than where the boy was heading.

Confusion wrinkled Sora's face as he spied where the man was pointing. "There? But that's a cruise ship."

"Right. Forty four passengers, eighteen crew fit." As Cloud led the way up the gangplank, he rattled off the dimensions of the ship. "Thirty cabins, two dining rooms, a lounge, a reading room, onboard pool, and of course, the gallery. She's called the Lifestream."

Perplexed, Sora walked behind Cloud as he eyed the vessel before them. "But why --"

No sooner had the question begun to be asked when it was answered by a chorus of "SURPRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISE!!!!!!!" Caught off guard by the yell, Dyne jerked and dug his claws into Sora's shirt with a wide eyed look, while Sora simply stopped walking and stared. Within the boat, all of his friends and people he didn't even hang out with were waiting amid festive birthday decorations and bobbing balloons. A cacophony of noise came from all the noisemakers, loud clapping and screams of "Happy Birthday" that resounded off the main deck and the one above.

Sora was completely floored.

"Because," stated Cloud in his usual calm tone, "she makes for a good party." His hand was placed on the boy's shoulder.

Sora didn't know whether to laugh or cry or convulse with joy. In the end, he threw his hands out in a crazed whoop - forgetting that he was supposed to be hanging onto his cat - and rushed to the circle of friends waiting for him. Thankfully, the fact that Dyne's claws were firmly fastened to Sora's shirt prevented him from tumbling to the deck. The cat managed to climb its way over the boy's shoulder and dive into his hoodie moments before Sora crashed into Kairi, Riku, Tidus and Selphie.

"I can't believe you guys did this!!!"

"It was Cloud's idea!" Kairi had to shout over the noise to be heard. Sticking a noisemaker into her mouth, she blew into the object to make it extend and slap Sora's cheek.

"Cloud? Are you serious?" Ducking away from Kairi's noisemaker, Sora took an opportunity to glance over his shoulder to locate Cloud. He spotted the man on the far end of the ship giving instructions to a gaggle of crewmembers.

"Surprised me too." Riku planted one hand on his friend's head and ruffled the spiky hair affectionately. "We thought it was a good idea, so we went along with it. Until we discovered one tiny drawback about five minutes ago."

Before Sora could ask what the drawback was, a familiar voice shouted "HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASSHOooOOLE" from somewhere above. His mouth dropped open in horror when he looked up and spied Reno, Rude and Reeve on the upper decks wearing party hats and mocking jeers on their faces.

"There's Turks on my birthday ship?!"

"We didn't know they were going to be here until today. You see, Cloud invited a whoooooooole bunch of people we don't even know." Kairi pressed a hand to her forehead so that she could hide the look of chagrin on her face from Reno. "I think it was because the ship was so expensive that it would be a waste not to fill up all the rooms. Practically the whole school is here."

"This is not as bad as it looks! This is the perfect damage control!" Selphie piped in from beside Kairi. "Do you realize that this is the party of the year? And Rufus wasn't even invited! Cloudie hates his family for some reason so he didn't even get an invitation, HAHAHAHHA! But all the other Turks showed up! We have this election in the bag! Even though Dyne didn't show up for days to school, I can just say that he was planning this big big big party and everyone will believe me and we'll have this election and the homecoming wrapped around our pinky fingers! AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!" Pop! In all her enthusiastic, crazed laughter, Selphie popped the balloon she was holding in her hands. "WHERE IS DYNE ANYWAY?!"

Remembering that he was carrying his pet like five minutes ago, Sora panicked when he thought of his cat and the sheer amount of feet on the boat. However, relief came when he felt nails jab into the small of his back, alerting him to the fact that Dyne had relocated himself to a safer place. "I bet he'll be here soon. I just ah, I gotta use the bathroom."

Several of his friends pointed him in the direction of the lavatory, and Sora thanked them as he sprinted away. Upon arrival to his destination, he made sure that the door was shut and locked, then pulled Dyne from his hoodie. Before anything could be done with the dangling cat, the alien morphed back into his humanoid form. The collar of Sora's shirt was immediately grabbed.

"You almost dropped me into the water!!!"

"I did not! I was nowhere near the edge of the boat when I let you go." Ugh, there they go again with this infernal fear of water. Sora didn't feel like dealing with it, not when there was a PARTY OF THE YEAR waiting for him. "Come on Dyne. This is a huge boat. If you're that scared, then just stay in the middle."

At that point, the ground beneath them suddenly lurched. Apparently, the ship was casting off, surprising the both of them but for different reasons. Sora didn't expect them to leave the pier, and Dyne thought the vessel had begun to sink. Frightened beyond belief, the catboy threw his arms around Sora's neck and shivered. "I'm gonna die!"

Desperate to get a handle on this situation so that he could go out and have fun already, Sora attempted a gentle approach instead of trying to wrestle some sense into Dyne like he had in the bathtub. "No you're not. There's no way you're going to fall off this boat. Are you going to be this much of a scaredy cat in front of Reno? You know he'll laugh at you." When his words caused Dyne to look disgruntled, Sora laughed softly and brushed stray hair from his pet's eyes. "Come on. It's my birthday and I want you to be there. Please?"

Dyne marveled at how the right words, the right tone of voice and the right kind of touch of a certain someone could drive a well trained Jumi into committing suicide.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


It was indeed, the party of the year. The passengers of the Lifestream were treated to a pleasure cruise that took them to the far islands of their archipelago. Normally, no one was allowed in these private sectors due to wildlife conservation, but Cloud had the connections that allowed them to use the area for snorkeling. Upon stopping a safe distance from the barrier reefs, the teenagers stripped down to swimming trunks and suits. Someone tossed Sora an extra pair of shorts, Kairi donned a boy-cut bikini with pink and white flower print, and Riku hoisted his silver hair into a high ponytail to fend off bad tan lines.

Unlike everyone else, Dyne did not take off a single item of his clothing. He stubbornly remained dressed from head to toe because he had no intentions of drowning himself in the water; not to mention people might ask questions about his cat ears and tail. While half of the kids departed on small boats to reach the snorkeling spot, Dyne perched himself on the highest deck of the ship and worried his tail off as Kairi and Sora grew smaller with distance. The human who thought of swimming in water with nothing but a rubber pipe to breathe with needed to be incinerated with prismatic missiles. Riku, on the other hand, could drown for all Dyne cared.

Inevitably, people took the opportunity while Dyne was alone to approach him and ask about his recent absence from school. Taking up Selphie's advice, he manufactured a grand story of how he helped Cloud rush all over the islands in search of a cruise ship in time for Sora's birthday, all while he was near death with the flu and delirious with medication. Everyone bought it.

As the rumor traveled that Dyne had been in charge of the party, it fast became evident that they were on the eve of a regime change. The more people talked about it, the more they agreed that they were all going to vote for him. Turks that had never given the blonde headed kid the light of day were suddenly best friends with him in a manner of hours. Elena, who paraded herself on the ship wearing a scandalous, sky blue thong bikini, and took every opportunity to hang all over the future president as if they were an item. Dyne found it unfair that while his real friends were out drowning themselves by the reef, he was stuck catering to this hoopla on the ship.

Thankfully, when the food was unveiled, the crowd relocated to tables filled to the brim with snacks and hors d'oeuvres. As much as the smell was enticing Dyne, he'd rather have Sora bring him a plate once he was safely back on the ship. Now free of interruptions, he resumed his post on the upper deck and kept a sharp lookout for his friends. He hated the fact that every now and then, the kids took long dives beneath the water that hid them from view for extended periods of time.

"Hey Blondie. Aren't you going to swim with the birthday boy?"

Greaaaaat. Reno's ugly mug was the last thing Dyne wanted to see right about now. Out of everyone, Reno was the only person who hadn't changed his stripes concerning his relationship with the supposed new president of the school.

"Get lost. The sight of you in swimming trunks is burning my eyes." Dyne averted his gaze to the left, although this gesture was done because Reno had brought up swimming, not because the redheaded Turk was particularly ugly.

"Is that any way to treat a guest? After all, you helped invite me." Reno stalked closer, causing Dyne to slide sideways against the railing to get away from the troublemaker. Fresh from the swimming pool, water was dribbling liberally from the Turk's drenched body and Dyne was trying his best to avoid any of it getting on his clothes.

"In your drea-" Dyne was just about to deny that he had invited Reno, when he remembered that he had supposedly helped "Cloud" put the whole party together. This included the guest list. Hiding a scowl, the alien sucked up what he really wanted to say and played along with his story instead. "Well I figured I'd give you the chance to kiss my ass now before I become president. I'm sure you'll be good at it since you've had lots of practice."

Anger flashed across Reno's eyes, but that emotion was squelched in favor of an oily smile. He leaned even closer to Dyne, who continued to recoil away with distrust. "I just want to be friends, Dyne. Why don't you come take a swim with me and the boys? Stop being so antisocial."

"No thanks, I'll pass."

"Really, I insist." A sinister smile crossed Reno's lips, and that was all the warning Dyne had. While the redhead kept his full attention, Dyne didn't notice Rude scaling the wall to the upper deck. When he reached the guardrail that Dyne was leaning against, he locked his powerful arms beneath Dyne's armpits and yanked him over it.

"Wha --!" Dyne's stomach fluttered with panic as he and Rude sailed down to the lower deck. They made a jarring landing on their feet, but that barely phased the kidnapper. Rude kept his hold on the struggling blonde as he continued to drag him all the way to the pool. Heads turned at the sound of loud profanities shouted by Dyne, who's eyes were going wider and wider the closer they got to the water.

Just when Rude had made it close enough to toss Dyne into the pool, his captive tossed his head back to crack it against the Turk's jaw. The moment Rude let go to nurse the injury, Dyne grabbed one of his arms, doubled himself over and flipped the oversized brute over his back and into the water. He was sure to dance back a couple of steps to avoid the ensuing splash.

Some of the partygoers thought it was a bit overkill to hit Rude like that, after all, it was a simple dunking. Dyne was practically asking for it by walking around fully dressed while the rest of them were in beach clothes. However, many of them laughed and told the new kid "good going!" for teaching the Turk a lesson.

On the other hand, Reno, with his vast experience of torturing kids, was able to pick up on what had set Dyne off very quickly. "He can't swim." He folded his arms as a sneer gave his lips a wicked curl. "Looks like blondie has a weak spot after all."

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Despite the shenanigans of the Turks, the rest of the cruise went rather smoothly. All of Sora's friends pitched in for the most expensive gift of all: A set of cell phones with web browsing, picture taking and walkie-talkie capability. Sora found it to be a bittersweet gift; with Riku's graduation only a year and a half away, they would soon be parting ways and a phone might be the only way they could talk anymore. However, those thoughts were quickly forgotten when Sora became addicted to taking pictures and chirping.

Long into the night, the festivities continued. Lights lit up the Lifestream like a Christmas tree, and Cloud's crewmates provided ambience with the help of guitars, maracas and well-worn drums. Inevitably, people began to pair up. Couples lingered in secret corners, talking in hushed voices or making out. Others were retiring to their rooms for more illicit acts of romance.

By then mostly everyone had chosen a room to stay in. Sora was bunked with Riku, Kairi was rooming with Selphie, and Dyne was stuck with Tidus. An argument had broke out between Dyne and Riku over whom got to room with Sora, but it was settled with a single coin toss. After losing to the human boy for a second time, Dyne was convinced that there was some kind of voodoo magic that made Riku always win.

Thankfully, the argument and the coin toss had all occurred behind Sora's back. Between all the swimming, socializing, playing and eating he'd done all day, the birthday boy was bushed. Seeking solace from the crowd of people that had surrounded him all day, Sora picked a quiet place on the lower deck to lean against the guardrail and look out into the ocean.

Also enjoying the view, but not of the ocean per se, was Riku. Unbeknownst to Sora, his best friend was watching him watch the ocean from the birds eye view of the upper deck.

"You're being a little obvious," said a playful voice from beside him.

With a smile, Riku glanced over at Kairi who had just joined him at the guardrail. "I got this spot first. You'll have to find somewhere else to stare."

"Don't be stingy." Kairi folded her arms and rested them on the metal guardrail. She could see why Riku chose to look at Sora from a distance rather than join him; he looked so peaceful standing there alone. Maybe he was dreaming of the usual Sora-things, like adventures or flying or aliens. Then she remembered that he was 15 now, so maybe he had let go of some of those fantasies by now. It made her feel sad, yet happy to see her friend growing up. "Are you really going to tell him so soon? I thought you were going to wait until he was at least 16."

"So, I changed my mind." Riku had no intentions of explaining to Kairi the situation between Dyne and Sora. He felt that it would only complicate things more than what they already were. "Besides, if I sit around, you just might take him from me."

Although Riku was speaking playfully, the serious expression on his face made Kairi's smile disappear into a frown. She turned away from the view to face her friend fully. "I'm not trying to take Sora away from anybody. I just want a boyfriend, just like any other ordinary girl. Sora is special to me, to both of us. Even if he did start treating you different, I wouldn't let him."

"I was just kidding Kairi, don't get so serious." Riku waved two fingers idly at the girl to dismiss the discussion. Kairi may have thought that the three of them were too special to have their friendship affected if they paired off, but Riku didn't share such delusions. Nevertheless, he let her believe what she wanted, because he wanted her to keep her carefree smile for a little while longer.

Kairi gave Riku a long, searching look. Then she turned back to the ocean and Sora, quiet and contemplative. They stood together in silence for a long time, until Riku's murmuring disturbed it.

"Kairi, what would you do if Sora didn't pick you?"

"What would I do?" Her hands linked together as she thought on the question. The toe of one of her sandals was tapped softly against the floor as she considered the possibility of losing to Riku. "I guess I would go home and cry. What else could I do?" She gave Riku a curious glance. "What about you?"

"Crying is for girls."

For that, Riku earned a mild glare. "So? I bet Sora would make you cry too. How can you not cry for someone you've liked all your life?"

Something between a snort and a laugh wheezed past Riku's nose. His thoughts kept circling back to the things Dyne said a few nights ago, upsetting him more and more as he thought of his best friend possibly having a relationship with the new kid. He wanted to tell Kairi what he knew so bad; out of everyone in the islands she was the only one who would understand him best, but he refrained. He didn't want her to feel the kind of heart squeezing worry he was currently experiencing. "What if he doesn't pick either of us?"

Apparently, this was something Kairi had never thought of, judging by her wide eyes. Mentally, she cycled through all the people she knew and tried to pick out all the suitors that could possibly hold Sora's interest. In the end, she drew a blank, and therefore found Riku's question irrelevant. "Of course he'll pick one of us, we're his best friends. Who else can there possibly be?"

At that point, a distant "Soooora" made the boy on the lower deck turn around. Sora recognized Dyne's voice, and he tilted his head in that direction to see what the commotion was about. His pet, who didn't dare get as close to the edge of the ship as he did, clung to the walls with a plastic plate in hand. Sora rolled his eyes as he walked to the catboy, remembering how Dyne insisted on not feeding himself due to some weird alien custom.

_It's right under your nose and you don't even see it._ Kairi and Sora could be too much alike in their naivete sometimes. Since Riku wasn't much of a liar, he simply chose not to answer Kairi's question instead of telling her the truth.

Luckily, his silence didn't phase Kairi at all. The notion of Sora picking someone else was ridiculous. The only other girl he ever paid attention to besides herself was Selphie, and he sometimes complained that she talked too much. However, just to give Riku the benefit of the doubt, Kairi added in a conversational tone, "Anyway. If he doesn't pick either of us, then you're welcome to come to my house so we can cry together."

Surprisingly, that got a real laugh out of Riku.

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Eventually, Sora and Riku decided to turn in for the night. After saying goodnight to everyone, they walked to their shared cabin; haggling the entire way over whom got to take the first shower. The moment they entered their room, Sora sprinted to the bathroom and slammed the door, thereby deciding for them who got to take the first bath. Moments later, he opened the door and sheepishly asked Riku for a change of clothes, which were thrown into the cheater's face with a smirk.

Despite his recent worries, Riku couldn't help but feel content. He'd just come from a great party, the entire day had been spent with nonstop fun with his friends, the Turks were too busy with Dyne to bother him, and now he was all alone in a bedroom with his crush. If he remained quiet, he could hear Sora puttering around in the bathroom as he shed his clothes and turned on the faucet.

_Did you know that when he's taking a really long shower, it's because he's jacking off furiously?_

Unbidden, memory of Dyne's words returned to Riku. He was aghast the first time they were spoken to him, now they caused a strange feeling of titillation in his stomach. Suddenly, Riku was all too aware of the fact that a mere door separated him from a wet, naked Sora. The situation reminded him of the countless locker room stories he'd heard of guys surprising their girlfriends in the shower, which of course led to sexual trysts of porn movie proportions. Of course, Sora would never just bend over and take it, he'd first glare at Riku for intruding on him, then he'd tell him to go away, and if Riku pushed the issue, he'd shake his head with a resolute no, all while his blue eyes blazed with curiosity..

Without sparing a thought on it, Riku edged closer to the door. He felt as if he were about to do something naughty, like sneak out of the house at midnight or steal Sora's eggo when he wasn't looking. However, all he intended to do was take a peek. Just to confirm that what Dyne said wasn't true. Sweet, naive Sora touching himself? No way. How could he keep such a dirty little secret? They were best friends, they were supposed to know everything about each other. Obviously, it was time he reminded Sora that he could be trusted with the knowledge of his every hidden fantasy.

Closer to the door, Riku could feel the steam from the hot shower seeping through the cracks. His throat tickled with dryness as he placed his hand on the doorframe and leaned forwards. He tilted his head and pressed an ear to the barrier. From the other side, the sounds of water smacking irregularly against porcelain greeted him, clearly due to the rivulets following the curves of Sora's body.

Listening intently, Riku shuttered his eyes as he placed actions to every noise that he heard. Sora rubbing the shampoo into his hair. Sora working the soap into the flat planes of his stomach. Sora caressing his thighs with foamy hands. Sora rubbing his genitals vigorously to make sure that every fold of skin was clean..

_Did you know that when he's taking a really long shower, it's because he's jacking off furiously?_

_It hasn't been that long._ Yet Riku felt as if he'd been standing there for an eternity. It would have been prudent to stop lurking like this, but he couldn't tear himself away from the door. He had to know. Almost feverishly, he listened for a sign that Sora was pleasuring himself. He just had to know if his best friend was truly ready. Riku wanted to hear the confirmation so bad, that he thought he heard the stroking motions and stifled whimpers from beyond the door. The thought of a lonely, needy Sora caused an answering ebb of exquisite longing to echo in his belly.

_I want.._ His fingers traced light, considering circles against the door. _..to know.._ Unable to hold back any longer, his fingers crawled to the doorknob.

Then, the door to the cabin slammed open.

"RIKU!!! Please tell me that you know where Yuna's room is!"

Tidus had never seen Riku jump so high. The utterly frazzled boy wheeled around to fix the intruder with a heated glare. "Don't you know how to knock!"

"Sorry! It's not like I caught you naked or anything. But this is an emergency! This is my only chance to ask Yuna to the dance and I gotta do it now while it's romantic."

Ironically, Tidus's words applied to Riku as well. This truth did not escape the platinum blonde. Withholding a sigh, Riku tried to will away the goosebumps that had erupted all over his body. "She's on the second deck somewhere. Ask Kairi, she probably knows." Talk about having the mood ruined. It would be a while before he could work up the courage to attempt seduction on Sora again.

"Kairi, right! Oh and, whatever you were up to, I swear I didn't see it." With another slam of the door, Tidus left the cabin for the upper deck.

For a few moments, those parting words caused Riku to look stricken. Then, by degrees, he managed to convince himself that Tidus had no clue of what was really going to transpire. Finally letting go of a sigh, he pushed his bangs from his face and tried to relax.

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"Shower's free."

From his place on the bed, Riku peered over at the bathroom doorway. Sora had opened the door, but remained inside the bathroom so that he could finger comb his hair in front of the mirror. Since he'd come to the ship unprepared for a cruise, all of his clothes had to be borrowed from Riku. Although the black tank top he wore was one size too big, he liked it just because of the stylized, circular "Body Glove" written on the back. Surprisingly, the cotton, gray boxers that were lent to him felt a little tight.

"These shorts are too small for me." Sora resisted the urge to pick at a non-existent wedge. Wearing Riku's underwear felt weird in ways he did not want to think about.

"They're not small. Your butt is just big." Riku couldn't resist smirking.

"No way, yours is just really small." Finally finishing with his hair, Sora walked into the bedroom, bringing with him the clean smell of soap and dampness. "I left you some hot water."

"Yeah, probably about five minutes worth." Sadly, Riku couldn't help but feel disappointed. He'd hoped that by catching Sora being naughty, he'd have proof that his friend was curious enough to try new things. Now he was back to guessing. In any case, since leaving seaweed in his hair for too long was likely to turn it green, he scooped up his overnight bag and ambled over to the bathroom.

As soon as Riku closed the bathroom door, Sora left the room. He wanted to check on Dyne one last time before going to bed. All day, he had been hearing a rumor about Rude trying to toss his pet into the pool, and he hadn't had a chance to ask his companion about it. First, he checked the room he shared with Tidus, only to find it completely empty. Then he walked along the decks of the ship in hopes of running into him somewhere, but the areas he checked were completely deserted.

Frowning, he wandered to the prow of the ship and leaned against the railing. Where could Dyne have gone? Just when he was starting to worry, he spied a figure traveling in his direction. His pet was inching along the walls near the middle of the ship again, looking just as wary of the water as when they first arrived at the Lifestream.

Honestly, one would think that Dyne got used to the ocean after spending an entire day on a ship. Sora's brows arched with sympathy for his pet. "Is it true that Rude tried to throw you into the pool?"

"Tried is a key word," muttered Dyne bitterly. Next time, he was going to throw that stupid Turk off the ship. When he ran out of wall to creep against, Dyne hesitated in his steps. There was an unsupported walk all the way to the front of the ship, where Sora was standing.

Reading Dyne's body language was easy, however Sora did not take pity. Straightening up from his lean against the railing, he spoke in a matter of fact tone. "Dyne, you have to get over your fear sooner or later. It's the only way you're going to make it on these islands."

"I'm not afraid. I'm just being really really careful."

Riiiiiight. Sora gave his pet a flat look. "Come here." He stretched both hands out to beckon his pet to join him.

Upon seeing what Sora wanted, Dyne seemed to shrink. "No thanks, I feel a little seasick."

"Stop pretending, I know you're scared." Although this was very amusing to him, Sora gave his companion a reassuring smile. "Come on. If you make it, I'll tell you a story."

"That's so lame."

"Then I guess you don't want to sleep in my bed tonight."

_Damn!_ That was exactly why Dyne had left his room to go prowling around the ship: To find Sora and break up the inevitable love fest that Riku had undoubtedly planned for the brunette. Not to mention, riding on the Deathstream would be easier if he got to share his space with Sora. Narrowing his eyes, Dyne steeled his courage, and then took one cautious step out into the open.

As soon as he was clear of the wall, it became evident that the wind was more powerful on that side of the ship. It buffeted against the two boys, tossing their hair and making their shirts whip like banners. Dyne had to take off his hat and hold it to prevent it from going overboard. Ahead of him, Sora waited patiently with hands outstretched as step by agonizing step, Dyne came closer to him and the ocean. By the time he was within two yards of his goal, the poor catboy was shaking like a leaf from head to toe.

"Almost there," coaxed Sora gently. Dyne's last two steps might as well have been on a bed of nails by the way that he was grimacing. However, after an agonizingly long time, he cleared the distance and made it to Sora's hands. Immediately, he was pulled to Sora's chest and wrapped in a tight hug. "See, that wasn't so bad was it?"

"..I think I left my stomach back there," said Dyne in a sickly voice.

"Sssssh, its ok." Figuring that Dyne would feel safer if he was anchored into place, Sora held his pet tightly. One hand, however, crept upwards to stroke the nest of blonde hair and cat ears that were tickling his nose. After a few moments, Dyne finally relaxed and rested his head against one of Sora's shoulders.

Slowly, so as not to disturb this lull in Dyne's fear, Sora began to turn them so that they were sideways to the ocean.

"W-what are you doing?"

"I'm going to tell you that story now." Sora stopped petting to place his hand securely around Dyne's waist, and tilted his gaze to the ocean. "Look at it. Don't you think its pretty?"

Reluctantly, Dyne turned his head away from Sora's shoulder to look outwards. In the distance, the water was pitch black, but closer to the ship it was illuminated by golden color from the lights. However, when he looked directly to the North, a silver path created by moonlight cut through the roiling darkness all the way to the distant shores of Destiny Islands.

"Your moon is pretty, but the water is not."

Sora chuckled at Dyne's stubborn dislike of water. "The natives of Destiny Islands - the real indians that used to live here - would say that the moon was a goddess. She wears a long white dress, and when she walks across the water, you can see it trailing behind her."

For the first time, Dyne was struck by a profound sense of homesickness. Sora's story of the moon goddess echoed the hundreds he'd heard when he was growing up on Katina. He never thought he would ever miss his home planet, not when there were so many bad things he was leaving behind. Yet, he couldn't deny that he missed his childhood friends, even if they were all loyal to their mates now. The catboy found himself yearning for his own sands, his own deities of the moon, and the familiarity of his citadel.

"Whenever sailors get lost out in the ocean, they follow the light of the moon. It always leads back to Destiny Islands. Its saved lots of people that way." Sora turned his gaze back to Dyne to make sure he hadn't fallen asleep or was on the verge of throwing up. Instead, he found the most intense pair of cerulean eyes fixed on him, ringed with moonshine.

"...Dyne...?"

Without warning, the rest of the question was stolen away with a kiss. Utterly surprised, Sora froze in complete shock. Dyne's mouth was so soft; it was like being pressed against a pillow. Maybe it was a pillow. Maybe he was still in bed and this was all one long crazy dream. However, the strong hands kneading his shirt reminded him that this was reality. He was here and he was being kissed, and despite how stiff he'd gone in reaction, a homey feeling, like being wrapped in a warm comforter, oozed beneath the surface.

Although he'd caught Sora with his mouth the slightest bit open, Dyne left the kiss chaste. When he drew his lips away, he regarded his owner with lidded eyes. Obviously, he'd found the experience to be quite engrossing, because he'd forgotten to hide his tail altogether. It swayed behind him in a slow, careless dance.

Unlike Sora, who was as still as a statue. When he finally spoke, his voice sounded a little shrill. "..You kissed me!"

"You didn't really think I wasn't going to do it after telling me something that romantic, did you?" The way Dyne's tail undulated behind him matched the mischief in his voice.

It was all Sora could to do sputter, "I-I wasn't trying to be romantic!"

Dyne cuddled up against the flustered boy with a purr. "Sora Sora Sora, don't be so kittenish. The next time, we'll go all the way to second base, rrrrrr."

"No, you don't understand!" Sora wasn't sure if Dyne was even listening anymore. His pet had taken to wrapping his tail around one of his legs and nuzzling his chin. "That was my first kiss!"

"It was my first kiss too."

"It was?" Dumbfounded, Sora stared down at his pet. "Then why did you do it?" How could Dyne treat it so carelessly? Did people from Katina hold nothing sacred?

"I told you, I've only gone through one Estrus. The one that you were nice enough to turn me down for." That last sentence was dribbling with sarcasm. Dyne tilted his head up to regard Sora. "In Katina, we don't do any of that boyfriend girlfriend crap. Mates are chosen for life."

Suddenly, Sora felt as if someone had just shoved his face into the floor. For life? There he was thinking that Dyne couldn't take anything relating to relationships seriously, or to understand that certain things are meant to be special, only to find that his pet probably had a clear understanding of that all along.

_For life._ It all made sense now. The way he acted so brashly and constantly tried to coax Sora into becoming intimate with him. For Dyne, this was all or nothing. Claiming him was like, like when a boy's voice drops when they're teenagers. It's something that has to happen, and if it didn't, it would be like they're still children. And it's a permanent change that stays.. For life. Digesting this realization made Sora stand and stare dumbly into space.

"Hey. Can we get away from the scenery of death already? I'm ready to go to bed."

Snapping out of his stupor, Sora finally noticed that they were out in the open with Dyne flashing his extraterrestrial appendages. "Hide your tail!"

Obediently, Dyne fixed the way he looked while Sora scanned the area to make sure that nobody was watching. Then they left for the quarters they would be staying at for the night. Since Riku probably wouldn't appreciate a third guest while there was only two beds, Dyne shifted into his feline form before they entered the room. To make sure that no one got suspicious about the extra clothing Sora was carrying, they were hidden beneath his shirt.

Luckily, Riku was still in the bathroom, although he left the door open. He was too busy combing the kinks out of his hair to spy Sora quickly removing Dyne's clothes from under his shirt and stuffing them into his backpack. "Where did you go?"

"I had to find Dyne."

Frowning, Riku looked back at the room and was relieved to see that Sora meant Dyne the cat and not Dyne the brat. "Oh. I forgot you brought him." Finishing with his hair, he walked out into the bedroom and immediately noted that there was something different about Sora. He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was, but he knew in the way that all best friends know that something was up. "Did anything happen?"

Dyne kissed me. Sora wanted to say it, but he knew that Riku wouldn't take that news very well. His hate for Dyne would probably only increase. To avoid that, he gave his best friend a half-truth. "My shoulders hurt after all that swimming."

"Want me to get the kinks out for you?"

"Sure." Sora plopped Dyne on the bed before rolling onto his stomach beside his pet. His furry friend wasted no time in picking the worst spot to sit in, which happened to be directly in front of Sora's face. "Dyne," the boy muttered in annoyance. After turning his face to the opposite side, his cat was free to smother the back of his head instead. 

Meanwhile, Riku produced a bottle of lotion from his book bag and squeezed its contents onto his palm. As he rubbed his hands together, he glanced in his friend's direction and found himself staring at the tanned body waiting for him. A poignant feeling overcame him, one that made his throat constrict with bittersweet longing and caring. He wanted to build a fortress around Sora and never let anybody pass the door. It was a sentiment he shared for Kairi as well, but with Sora it was all encompassing.

How could it be anything but love?

With a voice that had gone deep and soothing, Riku told Sora to relax. Obediently, the boy deflated with a noisy sigh and let himself settle into a mood that was receptive to his best friend's touch. Ever since Riku got really serious into sports, he learned lots of interesting skills, such as the athletic massage. When he first became adept at them, Sora and Kairi begged him for sessions so much that eventually Riku got tired of it and began denying every request. Therefore, to be offering this service to Sora now was the rarest of treats, given only because it was his birthday.

However, one had to wonder who exactly was benefiting the most from this interaction. Riku was all too aware of the warmth of Sora's body as he braced his palms against the slope of his best friend's lower back. With a firm press, Sora's spine was straightened with a satisfying crack, earning a pleased "uhn" from the brunette.

Unfortunately, in Katina the sound of bones cracking only occurred on the battlefield or during torture. Dyne's head shot upwards with wide eyes and ears tilted forwards in shock. The cat stared, unable to comprehend this act of rearranging Sora's organs or whatever it was that Riku was trying to accomplish. It looked very painful, especially when he began to karate chop the boy's muscles.

On the other hand, pain seemed to be the last thing Sora was feeling. By the end of the massage, the boy was nothing more than a smiling, boneless lump on the bed, relaxed to the point of sleepiness. Usually, when he got to this point Riku thought he looked pretty goofy. Sora had always been this skinny, gangly kid with long legs, giant feet, big hands and a head of hair that would put any birds nest to shame. Then, over the years, Riku had watched his best friend grow a little proportioned, fill out with the help of a healthy teenage appetite, and develop lean muscles thanks to a highly active lifestyle.

Goofy wasn't a good word for him anymore. Sora was a kinetic person that naturally made everyone around him feel good to be alive. Riku couldn't imagine living without that energy, that presence in it. Just the thought of it made his heart feel as if it had been hollowed out. There weren't enough words, and there weren't any right words to say how much Sora had affected his life.

So, his best friend would have to forgive him, because the only way Riku could ever say things right was by showing Sora.

"Sora, can I try something new?"

A sleepy "nn" was his response.

"It might feel weird."

"..don't care."

_You have to care._ All the years they spent together, all the things they've done, on some level, Riku was sure that Sora would care for him too. Ever since he realized his own feelings for his best friend, he'd waited patiently for Sora to do the same. However, the years were crawling by, time was dwindling for them, and now there was another person in the picture who made it seem as if he'd made strides with Sora in a manner of weeks while Riku had been waiting his whole life. Patience worn thin, he decided to push the issue and remind Sora that they had a trust that no one could break. A trust that could take them to paradise if they completely gave all of themselves to it.

With uncharacteristic tenderness, Riku placed his thumbs against the nape of Sora's neck and rubbed secret wishes into his damp hair. Immediately, Sora's brows drew together in wonderment at this strange, new touch. Then, Riku leaned down, closer and closer until Sora thought he was going to bury his face into his neck, and pursed his lips to blow warm air over the places he'd touched.

"What are you doing?" Curiosity laced Sora's voice. What Riku did made the hairs behind his neck stand on end. It was a feeling so new and weird that it was starting to wake him from his lethargic state.

"Sssh, relax. Try to sleep."

As always, Sora trusted Riku enough to let go of all doubts and close his eyes. This time, there were no karate chops to his back; instead it was a slow, contoured kneading done with the entirety of Riku's hands. It was the first time Sora had been touched so much and so tenderly by his best friend. He could feel the checked power in those strong arms, pressing firmly yet not bruising. Sora's muscles would clench in anticipation of Riku's roaming palms, only to turn to water with a flutter of his eyelashes upon their arrival.

_This is how important you are to me._

To the sides of Sora's body Riku's hands went, the pressure lightening until it had turned into a caress. The masculine curves of his friend's lean waist were mapped as he traveled towards ticklish underarms, surreptitiously hiking up the black tank top until Sora's back was exposed. Then, he leaned down and blew a puff of air at the very bottom of the bare spine. Sora's toes curled.

_This is how I need you._

At the touch to his thighs, Sora's eyes opened a sliver. Riku's thumbs dug between his hamstrings and followed the path of the tendons up and up, until his fingers began to disappear beneath the hem of the boxers. A burn of pleasure flushed Sora's cheeks and seared him all the way down to his tailbone. Loud and clear, he finally understood what Riku was saying. The proposition hung in the air like the poignant scent of the ocean. All he had to do to stop this was to shake his head no. He knew Riku like the back of his hand, without words his friend would know to back off, and this would never be mentioned again. Everything would stay the same.

On the other hand, if he allowed it to go on, it would be a onetime thing that would be their secret. It would be a safe way to satisfy their mutual curiosities..

Sora assumed too much.

When Riku bent to blow air up the sensitized skin beneath his boxers, Sora fisted the sheets beneath him.

But he couldn't help it if he wasn't given any time to think.

_This is how I want you._

With the rising level of intimacy between them, Riku was tingling all over. He knew that Sora was letting him go on. As long as nothing was said, as long as they didn't look too deep into each other's eyes, they could do this and still be friends. Little did Sora know, Riku had no intentions of leaving things at that when they were done exploring. For now, he was willing to let his friend cling to his assumptions, if only so that he could get his foot in the door and have this moment.

Just to show how serious he was, Riku placed his thumbs along the underside of Sora's bottom, feeling the muscles there tense in response. _Yes,_ he wanted to say. _This is how far we'll go._ All the way. He'd wanted this for so long. Once more, Riku leaned forwards, electric blue eyes trained on the crease of fabric that lined one of Sora's most precious areas. His lips pursed as he gravitated towards the perineal space between Sora's legs, but this time, he had no intentions of simply blowing.

_This is how I love you._

"HISSSSS." Slash!!!

Then Dyne prudently reminded them that they were far from being alone.

"ARGH!" Riku jerked back and clamped a hand over the bleeding gashes on his cheeks. Although Dyne's knowledge of human customs was far from perfected, he was pretty sure that the meaning behind someone putting their nose close to someone else's ass was universal across species. He would have continued to tolerate Riku's weird torture session if he hadn't caught on to the fact that this was a human ritual for seduction. How dare Riku try to usurp Sora in front of his nose like that! Dyne's blood was boiling with angry jealousy.

Needless to say, the charged mood in the room was broken. Sora bolted upright and was astonished to find his pet poufed and snarling dangerously at Riku. Every claw was extracted, the intent of further attack clear by the way his pet's tail was whipping like a rattlesnake. Before Dyne could make good on that promise, Sora grabbed his cat by the scruff of his neck. "Stop it! This isn't funny Dyne!"

Who was laughing? Dyne was pretty sure there was murder in his eyes right now.

"I don't think your cat likes me," said Riku lamely, his tone frosted over with disappointment. Now that Sora wasn't going with the flow anymore, it would be near impossible to get him that open again. Not to mention, having the opportunity wasted by a cat seriously put him out of the mood. Even the blood on his face was secondary to that fact. Riku was pissed.

"It's because he's stupid." Angrily, Sora rolled off the bed with the frazzled cat hanging from his grip like a rag doll. The door to their bunker was tossed open and he marched outside, barely able to restrain himself from tossing Dyne overboard. When he was out of earshot of the sleeping areas, he gave his pet a hard shake. "What was that about? You want me not to have any friends, is that it? You want me to be alone for the rest of my life and you couldn't care less, right Dyne!"

Instantly, Dyne morphed out of its feline form so quickly that Sora's palm now cupped the back of his neck. Sora's arm was smacked away as soon as the catboy had hands to do it. "Being friends is the last thing Riku wants to be to you. You can't tell me you still believe that after the way he touched you. Stop playing dumb Sora!"

"He was just giving me a massage!"

"Yeah he was going to 'massage' you alright. Right in the balls!"

Infuriated, Sora let loose a punch, but for once Dyne wasn't going to sit there and take it. He ducked the blow and put a couple of feet between himself and the boy by bounding away on all fours. Then he turned to face Sora again, tail completely straight overhead and fuzzed with anger. "How long are you going to keep bullshitting me, Sora?!"

Since attempts at hurting Dyne physically were not forthcoming, Sora tried to do it verbally instead. "So what? Maybe I've always admired Riku. Is that wrong? Don't you have friends like that in Katina?"

Like a distant dream, Dyne remembered Tsuz shaking his head at him in warning while Axel had his way with his body. "Those friends betrayed me."

At that, Sora fell silent. Although he'd been feeling distant from Riku due to his supposed friendship with the Turks, he wouldn't go so far as to call it betrayal. However, just imagining what it could be like made him feel bad for taunting Dyne with what he had with his best friend.

Seeing that the fires were starting to die down, Dyne straightened from his crouch on the floor. As his anger dissipated, his tail lost its aggressive stance and lowered to the floor. His cat ears veered to the sides and drooped low to his scalp in expression of his hurt. "Just.. don't fall in love with him!" With that, he darted away.

"Dyne!" Sora tried to chase him, but was unable to follow when Dyne scaled the wall to the upper deck in a manner of seconds. A sad pout was turned in the direction his pet had disappeared to. Too late, Sora realized that being with someone else could hurt Dyne, although the logistics of it didn't make sense. The catboy had no problems including Kairi as one of his potential "mates", so why was Riku such a taboo? Was it a double standard or was Sora missing something here?

With a confused and heavy heart, Sora returned to the room he shared with Riku. Upon opening the door, he found his best friend sprawled on a bed, holding a wet towel to his cheek.

"Did you throw it into the ocean?" Asked Riku dully.

"No.." Against his better judgement, Sora walked slowly to Riku's bed. Somehow, it felt wrong to be far away from him after what happened. Or at least, what almost happened. He took a seat at the edge of the mattress, quiet and indecisive. After all was said and done, he honestly didn't know what he wanted anymore.

To keep Sora from dwelling on things and feeling weird, Riku prevented silence by changing the topic. "Bet you were surprised that Cloud threw this party for you."

"Yeah." It was beyond surprising. Part of Sora wanted to stubbornly say that Cloud was just trying to win brownie points with his mom, though it had been done in such a skillful manner that he couldn't help but feel touched - which was annoying, because he didn't want to feel friendly with Cloud.

"Is everything alright with him?"

"Mom is happy to be with him."

That didn't answer the question, but for once, Riku didn't let it slide. He was tired of feeling distant and being kept out of Sora's secrets. Tonight, he'd made the choice to take his friend back. "Are you happy with him?"

Sora's eyes dropped down to where his hands were resting placidly on his lap, lightly curled and listless. "I don't want a new dad."

Nothing more needed to be said. The space between them was reduced to nothing when Riku sat up and wrapped Sora in a tight hug. It had been a long time since he had done this. When they were younger and the pain of grief was fresh, there were many nights spent holding his best friend until he cried himself to sleep. Never had he seen Sora so sad and shattered in his life, and echoes of those terrible memories made him cling to the other boy even harder.

_I understand._

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Sunrise painted the skies above Destiny Islands with a beautiful pink and gold. While the teenagers slept, the Lifestream had been docked on the pier. Despite the early morning hours, Cloud and his crew left the ship to hit the waves while the beach was devoid of life. However, the man didn't stay out too long since leaving the Lifestream unmanned with teenagers on board was just asking for trouble.

Since Cloud wanted to continue watching his friends surf, he placed himself on the gangplank leading off the ship. He hadn't been alone too long when the sound of footsteps made him glance over one tanned shoulder.

"Sora."

Obviously, Sora had endured a rough night. The droopy-eyed boy was unaware of how he looked with his sleep-mussed hair and the way that his boxers were hanging halfway off his hips. The night previous, he made the mistake of sharing a bed with Riku. In the early morning hours, he awoke to find his friend breathing deeply into his neck and storing one hand halfway down his boxers. Needless to say, Sora carefully inched Riku out of his pants and left the room very quickly, only to run into his mom's boyfriend at the gangplank.

Wordlessly, Cloud patted a dry spot next to him for Sora to sit. The boy seemed to hesitate, but ultimately felt too muddled to be rude. So he shuffled over to the indicated spot and dropped to the ground, leaving his legs to dangle over the edge of the gangplank.

For a long time, neither of them spoke. Cloud continued to watch the waves, and Sora was left to think about cats and Rikus and massages and hands that went in places they didn't belong in.

"Some rad waves out there today."

Sora barely acknowledged Cloud with a minute nod of his head.

Although Sora didn't seem to be in the mood for conversation, Cloud continued anyway. "I had a girlfriend that liked to surf in the morning. She would always come out here by herself, until she got caught in a rip tide. Hit her head on a rock. I never saw her again."

Of all the things that Cloud could have said to him, Sora was definitely not expecting that. He couldn't believe that the man had outright told him something that morbid. He stared at Cloud speechlessly.

"It was three years ago." Cloud's voice grew faint with memory. "I never wanted to surf again."

"But weren't you just out there?"

A nostalgic smile stretched Cloud's lips. "When 'Ness found out that I used to surf, she kept bothering me about it until I showed her. I feel in love with it all over again."

In a way, this didn't surprise Sora, because his mother was the type of person who could convince clouds to rain. It was the fact that she got Cloud to surf again that bothered him, because.. "They say my dad drowned too."

"I know." Cloud canted his head to squint at the boy. "But he didn't live afraid. Neither did Aeris. I've learned with Ness that maybe that's the best way to live after all."

It struck Sora then that the relationship between Cloud and his mother was far from superficial. This made him feel a little ill, yet he couldn't begrudge it. Cloud provided something for his mom that he could not: a way of living beyond grief. He wondered if his mom looked for someone like Cloud, or if it was something that just kind of happened. Either way, adults made relationships look so easy. Sora found himself awed by that.

"So.. um. How did you know that my mom was the right one for you?"

For some reason, this question seemed to amuse Cloud. "Does your mom know you're dating?"

A furious blush stole across Sora's cheeks. "I'm not dating!"

"Why not? You're old enough." Cloud then got to his feet and picked up his surfboard. However, before he left to hit the water again, he mussed Sora's hair. "It takes a long time to find the right one. But when you do, you know it." With that sage advice, the man ambled back to the beach.

Even though Cloud's answer had been very unsatisfying, Sora couldn't help but feel a little less animosity towards the man after their conversation. His mother had picked a good guy, if anything, he had to admit that. As much as he hated to say it, if anyone could understand himself and his mother, it was Cloud, because he also knew what it was like to tragically lose somebody.

"Hey Cloud." Sora smiled nicely when man looked back. "Thanks for the party."

For once, Cloud gave a full grin instead of the usual Mona Lisa smile, and then he continued to walk down the beach.

Unwilling to return to his room, Sora spent some time watching the surfers. He considered learning to ride the waves himself, even though a lot of kids thought it was a lame sport. Mostly because it was dominated by 20-somethings like Cloud who were so good at it that it was embarrassing to be seen floundering next to them. Not to mention, the stereotypic Destiny Island surfer was a booze-drinking, womanizing pervert. Although some of Cloud's friends definitely fit the bill, the man didn't change his stripes whenever he hung out with them. He was the same no matter who he was with, and that was an integrity that Sora had to admire.

With the sun climbing higher in the sky, it was inevitable that some of the kids would start waking up. Sora glanced back at the boat to see if anybody was wandering around, but instead of seeing people, he spied a mangy yellow cat watching him from inside a pile of rope. Dyne looked as if he had a rough night, his fur was stringy and tangled. It occurred to Sora that without clothes, his pet probably had to spend the entire night on deck since Tidus probably wouldn't appreciate rooming with a naked catboy.

An apologetic arch lifted Sora's brows as he turned around and stretched out his hands in silence beckoning. The cat seemed to ignore him at first, but after a moment it shook the sea spray from its fur and began to pad towards the brunette. As soon as he was close enough, Sora scooped him into his arms and held him close.

"I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings last night," said Sora in a quiet voice. "It's just that, everything is so new. Meeting you and starting tenth grade and -" a memory of Riku's stroking fingers came to mind. "..Stuff. I'm too stupid to understand anything."

Of course, there was no response from his pet. Since they still had some time before the others woke up, Sora crept back into his room to retrieve Dyne's clothes. Thankfully, Riku was using the bathroom at the time, so he was was able to grab Dyne's things and leave before any questions was asked. Again, he took his pet to the lavatory on deck, where he could shapeshift and put his clothes on.

This time, Sora waited outside until his pet was done dressing. After what felt like eternity, a rather broody Dyne opened the bathroom door and stepped out in human form and clothing. His hair was terribly disheveled, just as his fur had been. Sora turned to face his alien friend with an expectant expression. He was hoping that he would be given forgiveness.

Instead, Dyne strayed completely off the topic. "Do you know what today is?"

Taken aback, Sora wrinkled his brow. "It's Sunday. The day after my birthday."

"Do you remember what you were supposed to do on Sunday?" Dyne received a blank look from Sora. Since the boy seemed to be having trouble remembering, he emphasized things for him. "The day after your birthday."

It took a few more seconds, but then it dawned on Sora that he had a promise to keep today. He gasped with realization. "Kairi and Riku!"

"Good going, genius. It's about time we let this cat out of the bag."

After making that bad pun, Dyne began to walk past Sora. However, the boy wasn't so willing to forget what had happened the night before. Sora caught a corner of Dyne's shirt before he could get too far away. "Wait. Are you still mad?"

The response was swift and unexpected. Sora didn't so much as blink before Dyne rushed forwards and clamped his teeth over his ear. Shocked, Sora's first reaction was to pull his head away, only to find that his pet had no intentions of letting go. So instead of fighting it, he remained very still to prevent this strange experience from escalating into something painful.

In Katina, biting someone's ear could mean many things. Affection, anger, discipline, domination, intimacy; all rolled into a gesture that could only be completely understood in its context. For Dyne, he meant all of those things and more. It was only when Sora went still - ironically, the culturally appropriate thing to do for someone of lower rank - that he finally released the boy. Sora covered his reddened ear with his hand as soon as he was free and stared at his pet.

There was no shame in Dyne's eyes. Instead, they glittered with ominous intent as he spoke. "You can make me angry. You can make me sad. You can hurt me or even make me cry. But don't you ever make me jealous unless you're ready to handle it."

_Ready to handle it?_ That warning made Sora's stomach drop to the floor. He had an idea of what kind of consequence would be waiting for him if he inspired jealousy in his pet again. Something wicked and territorial, an action that would prove that Sora had been chosen by the catboy to be his first. A part of him shied away at the mere thought, another bristled at the fact that he'd been challenged and expected to back down.

And another, deeper part of him was deathly curious.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Sora hoped that his friends would turn out to be as forgetful as he was. Unfortunately, there was no such luck. Around midday they approached him with an air of expectation, and now he was obligated to fulfill his promise.

Although Sora was beyond nervous about this, Dyne was as smooth and confident as any cat. It must have been a luxury for the alien boy not to need anybody the way Sora needed Kairi and Riku. If they decided to never speak to him again or turn Dyne in to the authorities, he didn't know what he would so. At least his pet lost some of his bravado when Sora claimed that they needed to be on another island before he could tell them the secret. This left Dyne to endure a nerve-wrecking ride on a rowboat, which he spent with eyes closed and arms firmly wrapped around Sora's waist. Kairi found it funny, Riku thought it was disgusting.

Taking them to the place where it all began would serve two purposes: 1) Sora had promised to take Dyne there anyway, and 2) If Riku needed to be restrained, at least being away from the mainland would give them time to think of something without attracting any attention. Dyne wanted to kick their boats away as soon as they made landfall, but Sora patiently reminded him that although that would keep them from crossing the ocean again, they would eventually starve to death since the island had no food. Sadly, Dyne had to concur.

After mooring their boats, they traveled through the dense foliage to the place where Sora found Dyne. The smell of charred wood and chemical substance wasn't as strong as the night the spaceship crashed, although the scents still lingered in the air. Kairi and Riku became more and more intrigued as they noted the huge gash on the ground and splintered trees.

However, since Riku was not a fan of suspense, he ended the tour preemptively by standing his ground and speaking. "Well? Are you going to tell us or what?"

Unable to stall any longer, Sora stopped walking. All eyes were on him as he turned to face his friends, who were staring at him expectantly. An anxious hand lifted to push at his spiky hair, but he stopped himself when he realized how nervous it made him look. "Before I tell you guys what's really going on, you have to promise that you won't tell anybody else. It has to be our secret."

"What if your secret will get you in a lot of trouble?" Riku narrowed his eyes at his best friend. Already, he didn't like the circumstances of this promise.

"Then I guess you won't know what it is then." Dyne was all too happy to chime in when Riku was least happy to hear it.

Riku glared at the blonde troublemaker. "Was I talking to you?"

"I felt hot air blowing in my direction, so I figured you must have been speaking to me."

"Will you stop it!" Interjected Kairi with an exasperated look. "I don't know about you, but I came here to help Sora. If he needs us to keep a secret, then we'll do it. Sora, I promise that I won't tell anyone. So please tell me what's happening with you."

That managed to calm the tension on the small island. Riku backed down with arms folded and a dark look; and Dyne beamed with triumph and pride at the way Kairi took charge of the situation. She would have been wonderful with a litter of kittens.

Since being stubborn wasn't getting him anywhere, Riku gritted his answer past clenched teeth. "Fine, I promise to keep the secret. But if it's anything dangerous, you have to accept my help."

Accepting Riku's help usually translated to "Me Being Leader, You Abject Follower." Sora wanted to groan, but he supposed that there were worse things that could happen in this situation. He looked over at his pet, who gave him a "get on with it" type of gesture.

"Alright." Sora squared his shoulders and tried to shake off the sensation of slowly being tugged into a vat of quicksand. "Dyne is not who you guys think he is." Judging by the blank looks he received, it was obvious that they had already figured out that much. "I found him here, on this island, on the day that we were watching the meteor shower. His ship crashed here, on this spot." Sora gestured vaguely to the mangled scenery.

However, Kairi and Riku weren't looking at the scenery. They were staring at Sora as if he'd grown a second head.

"He's an alien. And he's my cat."

"Meow~" Added Dyne with a lascivious smile.

".............................."

For a long time, stunned silence reigned in the clearing. Sora's friends were statues frozen in shock. The one to become reanimated first was Riku, who stalked forwards with a dangerous look in his eyes. "You brought us all the way out here just to give us this bullshit story?"

"Wait a second Riku. Try not to be so close minded." To add icing to his words, Dyne waved his tail in front of Sora before Riku could get any closer. Kairi gasped, and Riku took two surprised steps away from the appendage.

"Please don't be mad," said Sora in a softer voice. "I didn't know if you guys would be scared or take him away, but he's my friend ok? And I want him to be your friend too."

"I think Riku needs a little more convincing." Dyne recognized the look on Riku's face as the same one that Sora had moments before he tried to pull his tail off for veritable proof of his existence. To prevent a repeat of that indignation, Dyne's figure became silhouetted in light, and then he shrank as he changed back to his feline state. It was a wonder that nobody's eyes fell out of their heads when he revealed himself to be the familiar yellow cat they had come to know for the past couple of months. Or at least, that they thought they had come to know.

As ordinary as any cat, Dyne paced to Kairi with his ears tilted forwards and his tail held up eagerly. With a heavy thump, the girl fell to her knees in shock.

Meanwhile, Riku appeared as if he were trying to squish his eyes by pressing his palms into their sockets. When he was sure that he wasn't trapped in some strange nightmare, he stopped trying to torture himself awake and placed firm hands on Sora's shoulders. "You've been living with that.. that thing all this time? Did it occur to you that he might not be here for a good reason? Sora, how could you-"

"He was hurt!" Sora gave Riku a disapproving look. "You were there, you remember how bad it was. We thought he was going to die. I couldn't just leave him like that, whether he's an alien or not."

"How do you know he doesn't have you under some kind of mind control?" Riku couldn't believe he was having this conversation. He felt as if he had stepped into the Twilight Zone. All this time, he thought he was dealing with some miscreant kid. He couldn't help but think back to all the times that he'd encountered Dyne, both human and feline - _OH SHIT._ Memory of what the catboy had declared to him a few nights ago made him freeze. This was bad. This was really. Really. BAD.

"That stuff only happens in movies!"

Their discussion was interrupted by a girlish squeal. The two boys whipped their heads around to see Kairi, who was ecstatically cuddling a very contented Dyne to her chest. When she looked up, her eyes were bright with the beginnings of tears. "Do you know how long I've wanted this?"

The boys stared.

"Haven't you ever wished that your pet could talk back to you? Oh Dyne! I love you so much!"

Riku's jaw dropped. Somehow, Sora wasn't as surprised; in fact he was relieved that at least one of his friends was accepting of this. "If he can control people's minds, then why isn't he controlling yours?"

"Maybe he can only do two people at the same time!" Riku was very close to tearing at his own hair. A very familiar overprotective feeling welled up inside him as he began to stride in Kairi's direction. "Kairi, put him down. You don't know what he's capable of!"

"No, he's my cat! Right Sora? You said that he would belong to the both of us." Kairi got to her feet and danced out of Riku's reach. If Dyne had been in humanoid form, he would have stuck his tongue out at Riku with relish. As it was, he would just have to content himself with attaching a claw to Kairi's boob and letting her do all the footwork for him.

"Kairi, put him down NOW."

"NO!"

Sora finally let out a groan that he had been holding in. "They've all gone crazy." All too soon, the small island was made chaotic with the presence of three kids and an alien cat.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Somewhere in the bushes, a foghorn was left forgotten on the ground. Reno's prank to scare the living daylights out of those brats was completely forgotten when he witnessed that blonde-headed kid shapeshift into a.. a cat.

In the beginning, he had a grand plan. Sora and his friends were practically asking for it by sneaking off so secretively on rowboats in the middle of the morning. With the help of a pair of binoculars, Reno watched them row towards a distant island away from the Lifestream. As soon as they disappeared into the brush, all he needed was one Jet Ski, one foghorn, and the intelligence to cut the engine before he got close enough to the island to be heard. With the help of the waves, he pushed the vehicle to shore, and all too soon he was following the sound of voices with a wicked grin.

All that changed when he discovered the truth. Immediately, he left the area quickly and quietly with stark fear in his eyes. Suddenly, so many little things that he couldn't put his finger on made sense. That was no costume that Dyne had been wearing the first time they met. The ears were real. The tail was real. He was real. Everything was real!!!

He had to tell Rufus.  
  
  
  
**To be continued.**  
  
  



	9. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Author** : Cold Silence  
>  **E-Mail** : writer.coldsilence@gmail.com  
>  **Pairings** : Riku + Kairi + Sora, Sora x BHK. (BHK = Blonde Headed Kid from KH II)  
>  **Warnings** : AU, Yaoi, Het, Furs, Dubious Consent. OOC Roxas due to the fandom personality he was given before information on his character was released with KH2.  
>  **Webpage** : https://coldsilence.tumblr.com/post/433113072/index
> 
> **Special Note** : This fic has relationships with things that have tails. Also, this story was started before Roxas's name was revealed, hence why he is named differently in this fic. Don't worry though, this actually fits well with what I have planned for him in the end.  
>   
>   
> 

**Fuzzy Love**  
- _Chapter Nine_ -  
  


Riku had never felt so weirded out in his life. There he was, sharing a remote island with a horny alien catboy, and instead of calling the police or the S. W. A. T. team his friends were traipsing around the place searching for pieces of Dyne's ship as if there was nothing odd going on here. Couldn't they see that they were in a dangerous situation? Didn't any of them realize that Dyne's intentions were impure?

Or perhaps he was the only one going nuts around here.

"Come on Riku. This would go a lot faster with some help."

A blank stare was all Sora received for his efforts to engage his best friend in the task at hand. Riku stubbornly continued to lean up against a gnarled tree, arms folded while everyone else hunted for the parts of Dyne's ship. That had been another concept that Riku had trouble wrapping his mind around: a ship that could break into pieces. After Dyne explained that he could leave the planet if they reassembled his spacecraft, they'd spent all afternoon scouring the island and nearby shore for the scattered parts - otherwise known as gummi blocks. So far, they managed to gather a pile of silver misshapen shapes that could have been Legos for all Riku knew.

Oh how his brain hurt.

"Dyne, I think found another one!"

Riku turned another distant stare to Kairi. Between both of his close friends, she was the one who had gone the most insane. Ever since Dyne revealed that he could shapeshift and talk, she did a complete 180 over how she treated his human half. Now she didn't mind the way he invaded her personal space or touched her. In fact, she took every opportunity to cuddle him back and KISS him. It made Riku's stomach churn.

"Yes! I thought I was never going to get that back." When Kairi approached Dyne with her newest find, he gladly took it from her to examine it. The item was not silver like the rest of the gummi blocks; instead it was checkered with a black and white pattern. At a glance, anyone would have mistaken it for a wristband.

"What is it?" Kairi looked on with interest as Dyne slipped the new object over his wrist.

"Prismatic missiles. Watch this." Pivoting away from Kairi, Dyne scanned the nearby trees until he found a good target. Then he lifted his newly decorated wrist and spread his fingers. Instantly, a cylindrical shaped rod of light materialized in the space before his palm and lanced to the tree. Its trunk was scorched upon impact.

Completely surprised by what just happened, Riku jolted upright from his slouch and Sora stopped fishing for gummi blocks in the water to stare.

Kairi gasped in surprise. "That's a weapon!"

"Yep. Good for taking down warriors that are trying to chop your tail off." Noticing Kairi's worried look, Dyne tried to assuage the girl. "It's set on stun right now, so don't worry. Though if I really wanted to do some damage, I can put it on maximum and burn a hole through the front and back of Riku's house with one shot."

Before Riku could finish his aggressive stalk to give a very up close and personal answer to Dyne's boast, Sora rushed from the shoreline and cut in between them. "Don't even joke like that Dyne! The only person you're allowed to use that against is Reno."

"Sora!" Kairi couldn't believe that Sora would authorize such a thing. "Dyne is not using that thing against anybody, that's just wrong."

"I was kidding, geez." Although, for someone who was just kidding, Sora looked a bit disappointed.

"Am I the only one that feels uncomfortable with Dyne having this kind of firepower?" As always, Riku had to be the voice of reason among his IQ challenged friends. "Why should we take his word for it and believe that he can't set it off accidentally?" Why should they believe that he wouldn't back stab them later and hold them all hostages with such a dangerous weapon?

"You are such a mom Riku. Catch." In the most negligent manner possible, Dyne removed the checkered band from his wrist and tossed it at Riku, who caught it as if he thought it would explode if he allowed it to hit the ground. "Put it on and you'll understand."

Warily, Riku eyed Dyne a few moments before slipping the band over his left wrist. It didn't feel particularly special; it could have passed for any old accessory bought from the sports store. "Well?"

"It won't activate unless you want it to. You have to think it."

_Ironic,_ thought Riku. He didn't believe Dyne was capable of rubbing two brain cells together and coming up with a spark. Nevertheless, he tried willing the prismatic missiles into activation. _Give me something to shut him up with._ To Riku's surprise, a targeting grid began to float before his eyes.

"Is anything happening yet?" Sora, who was dying to get a chance to use the missiles, stepped forwards in an attempt to touch the wristband.

"Wait a second." Riku drew his hand away before Sora could cause an accident. He immediately noted that the movements of his wrist caused a second targeting grid to correspondingly drift across his vision. "Is this to aim?"

"Yeah." Dyne appeared to be watching the interaction with a shrewd expression on his face. "Just line your eyesight with your hand, and it'll lock."

Stepping away from the others, Riku searched the vicinity until he found a dead log on the ground. He pointed his hand towards it, aligned it with his eyes, and found that the two targeting grids overlapped and shifted to red.

_Fire._

Instantly, a rod of light burned a sizable hole through the log.

"Whooooa! That is so cool! Come on, let me try!" Sora was beyond enthusiastic. Already, he was bounding again in Riku's direction so that he could take the wristband.

"No Sora, don't touch that thing!" Kairi caught Sora's shirt before he could get too far. Something about the fact that this type of weapon existed didn't sit well with her.

"Why not? Who's being a mom now?" Sora tried to pry Kairi's fingers off his clothing, only to find that she was being very stubborn about letting go. "It's not like I haven't played with anything dangerous before."

"It's not for playing, Sora." Dyne's voice was unusually somber. "I use that to pierce enemy shields and kill cats who stand in my way."

Upon hearing that declaration, Sora stopped his struggling and Kairi gave Dyne a wide-eyed look. Riku was the first to speak. "Stand in the way of what."

"Basically anybody who crosses my Rajah." The tone of voice that Dyne used would have made anyone think that he was just talking about the weather.

"The Rajah is his king," clarified Sora for anyone who didn't quite understand what Dyne was talking about.

"Dyne," began Kairi in a soft voice. "Have you ever killed anybody?"

To her immense relief, Dyne shook his head in the negative. "I left before I had to. But it's only a matter of time before they find me on this planet. When they do, I might just have to kill to protect myself."

Kairi gasped with horror at the mere thought. Meanwhile, Riku contemplated the innocuous band on his wrist. More of Dyne's kind was coming to their planet, and they were all going to bring weapons like the one that he wore. It was clear to him that getting the catboy off their world as soon as possible was the single most important thing that they should be focusing on right now. "I get how this works. If I wanted to make the light stronger, I just will it. If I just want it to stun, it works the same way."

"Not bad, you actually managed to figure that out on your own," said Dyne sarcastically. "Tell you what. Since you're so smart, you can hang onto it."

Riku slanted a suspicious stare at the alien. "What's the catch?"

"No catch." Dyne's tail coiled back and forth in a way that was insulting. "I'm not afraid of anyone who wants to kill me."

Although he didn't say it aloud, Dyne's insinuation rang loud and clear. He wasn't afraid of anyone who wanted to kill him, including Riku. Kairi's face became a gray slate, and Sora stared at Riku with searching eyes.

To tell the truth, Riku had never even thought of taking things that far with Dyne. In a way, it amused him that the catboy thought he was special enough to warrant attempted murder. A smile that was twisted at the edges creased his lips, and he casually broke the uneasy silence that had fallen over them as if nothing had happened. "So, what are you guys standing around for? We gotta get this dumb cat off Destiny Islands before more of him comes along."

With a heavy air, the teenagers resumed their searching. This time, Riku helped.

Dyne secretly smirked to himself. Let Riku think he had the upper hand for now. When the Spiral Claws came to Destiny Islands to find their lost Jumi, they would use their advanced technology to track down all the pieces of the gummi ship and any weaponry that Dyne happened to be wearing. Unfortunately, they would be sent on a wild goose chase since Riku was now wearing the prismatic missiles instead of Dyne.

If Riku survived that encounter, he would have to thank him later.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Later that afternoon, they stopped looking for gummi blocks and hid the pieces that they had found. They were buried among the roots of a gnarled tree, away from the eyes of any campers that may stop by the island. Afterwards, they rowed their way back to the main land, all except Dyne, who cowered between Sora and Kairi instead of helping to propel the boat.

As soon as they were back on land, Kairi tugged Dyne away from the boat and insisted that they stop by the mall to buy clothes. After all, he was probably tired of always having to wear Sora's stuff, right?

"Do we have to go to the mall today?" Groused Sora as he linked his hands behind his head. Shopping with Kairi was like spending two hours at the doctor's office waiting to be seen. It was soooooo boring.

"Actually, I kind of want to go with Dyne alone." Kairi gave Sora an apologetic look. Upon hearing her intentions to spend some quality time with him, Dyne looked significantly cheered.

"Alone?" Repeated Sora with a bewildered expression. That was not a good idea. Kairi was still under the mistaken impression - just as Sora had been in the past - that the way Dyne fawned over her was totally innocent, when in reality he was the universe's biggest pervert. "What do you want to be alone with him for?"

"To talk!" Kairi gave Sora a mild glare. "You've been hogging Dyne to yourself all this time. I want to get to know him too."

"That's right Sora, how could you be so selfish?" Dyne very merrily hooked his arm around Kairi's waist. "It's just the mall, you'd think I was going to kidnap her on my spaceship or something."

"But -"

"They'll be fine. The mall is a crowded place," said Riku from his place by their boats. After making sure that everything was properly secured, he rejoined the group. "Kairi, call me."

Kairi knew that if she didn't call Riku, then he was going to hunt her down and probably make a scene at the mall. She huffed with exasperation before reluctantly agreeing, and soon she was walking away arm in arm with Dyne.

Sora watched them go feeling as if he'd just swallowed a brick. If Dyne did anything with Kairi..

"When you keep secrets, you really know how to pick the big ones."

Remembering that Riku was there, Sora's attention shifted back to him. His best friend was watching Kairi and Dyne walk off with both arms folded over his chest. "If I had told you, you might have called the police or something."

"Sora, you know that if I did something like that it would have been for your own good."

A frown soured the expression on Sora's face. "Maybe what you think is right for me really isn't."

"So you don't trust me anymore, is that it?"

"No, that's not it." Some of Sora's frustration was starting to creep into his voice. "Dyne is.. something new. I mean, you and Kairi are busy doing other stuff now, but I'm still the same old Sora. At least with Dyne, I'm doing something special too."

That admission made Riku feel a little sorry for his friend. It must have been hard to keep up with someone who was on the road to becoming a professional athlete or someone who was becoming steadily popular and growing more feminine everyday. Poor Sora was outgunned, and somehow Riku knew that mentioning his best friend's efforts in soccer wasn't going to make him feel better about things. "So what are you going to do when Dyne leaves?"

"I don't know." Sora kicked at the ground. "I guess I'll go back to my boring life. What do you care?"

"Hey." Riku's tone was sharp as he caught Sora by the shoulders. "I care ok? Just because we don't hang out as much or do a lot of the same things; that doesn't mean I'll ever stop caring. The same goes for Kairi."

Sora stubbornly kept his eyes averted to the ground to avoid what he believed to be a reproachful stare in Riku's eyes. Little did he know, the look directed to the top of his head was actually brimming with unrequited affection.

"I have way too many memories with you to ever stop caring," continued Riku in a softer voice. One of his thumbs lifted to tenderly brush the slope of Sora's neck, an action that surprised his friend into looking up. However, before any questions could be voiced, Riku let go of Sora and turned away. "Besides, it's not easy to spend time with you when your new cat.. thing.. friend, would like to see my head on a pike."

"He's not like that all the time. I know he's a little hard to get along with, but Dyne has been good to me."

"Of course he's good to you. You give him food and shelter. How else would he survive?"

"It's not like that! I know he acts stupid sometimes, but under it all he does care."

"You call this caring?" Riku pointed at the angry scratch that Dyne saw fit to rake across his cheek. The sight of it cowed Sora. "Don't you see how he wants to take you away from your friends? In his eyes we're not good enough for you."

"He only says that because he's jealous." Sora's words came in a subdued tone.

"Sora, I know you're buddies with this guy, but he's got to go. When the rest of his friends come looking for him -"

"I know," cut in Sora sharply. "I'm not stupid. Even if I want him to stay, I'll still help him go to protect you, Kairi, my mom and everyone else that's important to me."

"I'm glad you see it that way." In truth, Riku worried that Sora would think up some crazy plan to make Dyne stay, but it seemed that his friend had some common sense left in him after all. Wearing an expression of chagrin, he fetched his new cell phone from his pocket and hit the speed dial for Kairi's number. Although she hadn't been gone for more than five minutes, he was already itching to check on her. While the line rang, he fixed Sora with a sideways stare. "You know, Kairi and I will always make time for you. All you have to do is ask."

"I know that," responded Sora petulantly. Of course he knew that. It was the fact that he had to ask in the first place that bothered him so much.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Later on that night, Sora found himself home alone. Riku had to leave for track practice, and naturally Sora's mom and Cloud had a lot to catch up on after spending most of the weekend apart. It was gross how they were attached at the hip. Dyne was presumably still with Kairi, even though the mall had closed hours ago. This knowledge caused Sora to picture all kinds of evil scenarios as to what they were doing at this very moment. Possibly by themselves. Unsupervised.

Dyne was no innocent. He was probably trying to kiss her, or touch her, or -

Before Sora's thoughts could spiral any further into the gutter, he snatched up his birthday phone and got Kairi's number on the line. His dumb cat had already spent too much time with her and it was time for him to come home.

_Ring ring._

["HiiiiIIiii! This is Kairi!"]

["And THE DYNE."]

["Leave your name, message and phone number-"]

["OR KAIRI GETS IT."]

["WUAAAAA!"]

_Beep._

Eyetwitch. Apparently, Dyne and Kairi had spent at least part of their time making voicemail messages. Sora ended the call and wondered if Kairi's phone was off or if it was set to set to activate the answering service after two rings. Switching tactics, he tried to send text messages instead.

[R u done at the mall]

Sora flopped down on the living room couch, feeling strangely bothered. He passed the time flipping channels until his cell phone bleeped five minutes later. Immediately, it was snatched from the sofa's armrest so that he could peer at the new message that had arrived.

[We r watchin a movie]

A movie huh. [Whenz dyne comin home]

_Beep beep._ [Tomorrow]

Tomorrow?! [R u sure thas a good idea]

_Beep beep._ [I promise i will only kiss her once n her sleep :) ]

With a start, Sora realized that he had been talking to Dyne instead of Kairi all this time. He contemplated telling his pet off, but in the end he knew that if he argued with him then it would only goad him on to do unsavory things to Kairi. So he put his phone down and tried to calm the worrisome flight of butterflies in his stomach.

His foot began to rap against the floor restlessly.

Three minutes later, Sora launched himself off the sofa and grabbed a jacket on the way to the door. He couldn't explain why he felt so nervous and sick at the thought of Dyne spending the night with Kairi. Part of it was the fact that they could be doing ANYTHING together, a thought that made him want to beat Dyne into the ground. However, there was something else, something that he couldn't quite put his finger on.

A feeling of being left out..

No, he couldn't finish that thought. Whatever the truth was; it hurt too much to even contemplate it. As Kairi's house came into view, he tried to clear his head and think of an excuse as to why he was picking Dyne up. He could always say that Riku wanted him to do it.

Sora hesitated when he saw that all of the lights in Kairi's house were off, indicating that her family was probably asleep. Unwilling to disturb them by going through the front door, he detoured to the side of the house. Luckily, Kairi's room was on the first floor, so it would be easy to peer inside to make sure that she was there and then knock on the windowpane to get her attention.

Once he made it to her window however, Sora froze when he looked inside. The only source of light in the room was from the television, which was playing a movie that no one was paying attention to. Kairi was fast asleep on a duvet that had been spread out on the floor with her arms around Dyne, who was curled up close with one hand splayed against her waist.

Sora ducked out of view to avoid being spotted. Suddenly, it was hard to breathe. A feeling of poignant sadness weighed him down until it was all he could do to squat against the side of Kairi's house. He felt like crying and he didn't know why. The scene inside of the house was innocent, he knew that for a fact. Dyne was a cat, he cuddled. Kairi was a girl, she cuddled. So it was natural that they would cuddle together. Yet seeing them do it made his chest hurt as if a knife had been driven into it. Why was he reacting this way? Was he sick? Was something wrong with his body?

Poor Sora was so overwhelmed by these feelings that he didn't notice the window being quietly unlatched and opened. A pale hand reached out and was placed on Sora's head, and he responded by scrabbling to his feet with surprise. He found himself facing Dyne, who was leaning casually against the sill.

"You came faster than I thought," commented the blonde with a mischievous grin. "Too bad I already ate all of the pizza."

Sora peered beyond Dyne to confirm that Kairi was still asleep. Upon ascertaining that she was, he lowered his voice so that she wouldn't be disturbed. "I came to take you home."

One of Dyne's eyebrows arched. "What, you don't trust me either? Bad enough Riku was calling like every five minutes."

"Yes - no, that's not it!" Did Sora believe that Dyne was a danger to anyone on the island? No, of course not. He felt that Riku was unfounded in that assumption. On the other hand, when it came to Kairi, he didn't trust Dyne as far as he could throw him. "I just think being home is better because that would make Riku feel better. If he thinks you stayed here overnight, he might cause a scene."

"Newsflash Sora, your home is boring! When I'm not stuck hiding in your room, the only other thing I have left to entertain myself is to trip up Surfer Boy with my tail. That's gotten old really fast."

"Then what's so great about Kairi's house? Her parents are there too!"

"Not today they aren't.~" The lilt in Dyne's voice sent chills down Sora's spine. "And she gives the best kisses."

Sora was unaware of the pathetic expression on his face. He looked as if he'd just watched the ice cream truck go by on a hot day with no money in his pockets. "Please, come home. I'll find something to make it interesting."

Dyne stared at Sora. This was the first time that the boy had ever come to him this vulnerable. The angel-kitty on Dyne's right shoulder told him not to smash Sora's little heart and agree to go home with him. On his other shoulder, a leather-clad devil-kitty told him to fleece Sora like a sheep while he had a chance.

It was inevitable which side would win. "Name one interesting thing, and I might consider going home."

This caused an interesting reaction in Sora. His bottom lip trembled, and the shiver that was there seemed to spread all the way down to his toes. His foot tapped nervously on the ground until he finally made his offer. "I'll kiss you."

Surprisingly, Dyne didn't immediately whoop for joy. Instead, he wore his game face and he swiveled one tufted ear forty-five degrees to affirm that Kairi was still asleep. "Been there, done that. Kissing you is like kissing a rock. See ya later Sora." With that, Dyne turned away from the window.

However, before he could finish taking one step, Sora reached past the window frame and grabbed Dyne's shirt. "Wait! I'll.. I'll.. I'll kiss back!" Upon hearing this, Dyne folded his arms with a dismissive wave of his tail. "W-with open mouth?"

Open mouth. Finally, Dyne turned around. His cerulean eyes narrowed at the fresh red coloring of Sora's cheeks and the embarrassed duck of his head. "And you will pet me."

"And.. I.. will pet you," finished Sora lamely. He didn't know what possessed him to offer such an outrageous deal, but he already did it and now he was in deep sludge. Sora didn't know what he was more afraid of, Dyne accepting the offer or rejecting it.

"Fine."

Dyne disappeared into the room to retrieve the numerous shopping items that Kairi had bought for him at the mall. Before he left, he wrote a note that said, "Sora got jealous and told me to go home," and left it on the TV. Afterwards, he joined the brunette outside, perfectly calm and self-righteous in his body language, even though he was secretly having the PARTY OF THE MILLENIUM inside.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


When they arrived back home, Sora excused himself to take a shower. While he went off to stall and angst in the bathroom, Dyne settled himself on the living room sofa and primped himself for the occasion. By the time Sora returned, freshly washed and nervous, Dyne had taken a perch on the very edge of the couch. The drone of the TV added to the supposed innocence of the scene.

For Sora, the closer he got to the couch the more his heart pounded. His tension was palpable as he sat on the opposite end of the sofa, whereas Dyne was as cool as a cat. Both waited for the other to make the first move, and it was Sora who bridged that divide. "What are you watching?"

"Music channel," answered his pet offhandedly. The next was added in the same tone, "It's not like I asked you have sex, it's just a kiss, Sora."

_Sex._ The word alone almost sent Sora into a spiraling panic. "I-I know that!"

"Really," murmured Dyne in a way that was far from innocent. Suddenly, Sora was the object of his undivided attention. Dyne prowled across the couch on hands and knees, eyes narrowed and feline ears tilted forwards at his prey. "Then why are you so afraid?"

Caught between Dyne, the armrest of the couch and his pride, there was nowhere for Sora to run. "I'm not afraid," he managed to choke out just before Dyne mounted his lap.

"Of course not," said the catboy with a purr. Dyne was smiling like a kitten that had just caught its very first juicy mouse. Steady waves of anticipation were curling and uncurling his tail from candy cane to spaghetti. A wicked gleam shone in his eyes as he leaned closer, murmuring halfway, "Don't forget to open your mouth."

_This is it._ Sora snapped his eyes shut and obediently parted his lips the slightest bit. It's just a kiss, just - one- kiss..

That one kiss was the strangest thing Sora had ever experienced in his life. He expected Dyne's lips to press insistently against his, just as they had back on the Lifestream. Instead, the raspy surface of a moist tongue thoroughly wet his mouth in one pass. Startled by this sensation, Sora opened his eyes, only to find that Dyne had closed his own while he engaged in the task of licking Sora's mouth raw.

Despite himself, Sora couldn't help emitting a soft laugh. He should have known that kissing was very different in Katina.

His amusement made Dyne pause. "You're supposed to be kissing back."

"I'm getting to it." Some bravery returned to Sora's voice. "I lick back right?" Without waiting for an answer, Sora leaned forwards and laved Dyne's lips in a copy of what had been done to him. To his surprise, his pet jerked away and covered his mouth with his fingers. Such an unfavorable reaction made Sora feel as if he'd just failed at life. "Did I do it wrong?"

"..No." Slowly, Dyne's hands fell away from his mouth. "I didn't know that the human tongue was so.. bumpy."

"Heh." Sora shifted uncomfortably. "Is that bad?"

"I like it." While Sora flushed with embarrassment, Dyne leaned forwards and nuzzled Sora's face in encouragement. "Do it again."

Tentatively, Sora inched his tongue over Dyne's lips again. His pet purred in contentment and began kneading the folds of the boy's shirt.

_This isn't so bad,_ thought Sora to himself. In fact, it was really easy. Enough that he gained the confidence to put more effort into showing Dyne that he wasn't afraid of a little "kissing." He was doing fine until his pet's raspy tongue met his own, making him pause at the titillating sensation it caused in his body.

That moment of stillness was all Dyne needed to bypass Sora's lips and deliver a luxuriant swipe across his palate. The resulting shiver brought a smile to the catboy's face. He proceeded to thoroughly french the boy's mouth, proving that there were some similarities between their worlds that Sora would not be escaping tonight. Their kiss finished with a succulent bite of Sora's plump lower lip, and then they found themselves staring at each other. Sora's eyes had become lidded, and his mouth was slightly parted as if in anticipation of more. Dyne had a predatory squint to his eyes that did not bode well for the boy.

A silent permission passed between the both of them. Dyne leaned in and latched his mouth to Sora's neck. To Sora's own surprise, he responded naturally by tilting his head to the side and closing his eyes. He didn't know how what possessed him to slide his hands behind Dyne's shoulders; on any normal day he would have been filled with hesitation and anxiety. Yet, in this moment, it was all coming easily, as if some part of his subconscious knew how it was all going to play out.

Dyne left a trail of wet kisses all the way to the hollow of Sora's throat, where he stopped and backtracked up the path he made. One long, generous lick traveled up Sora's Adam's apple, coasted beneath his chin and ended back at his lips with a deep kiss. This time, he found Sora to be a very avid participant; the boy kissed back with all the skill of a novice and all the enthusiasm of someone who wanted to learn. Dyne purred his approval and batted at Sora's knees with his tail.

When one his nipples was given a very naughty, sharp flick with Dyne's fingernail, Sora realized that he was turned on. His crotch was hot and he felt the burn of a flush on his face. As unbelievable as everything was, he wanted this, and his body was more than ready. One of his hands coasted upwards and sifted through the choppy layers of Dyne's hair, higher and higher until his fingers brushed the cat ears at the crown of his pet's head. Then, reality suddenly returned crystal clear. Sora stopped moving with realization.

Although Dyne was fully aware of the boy's unnatural pause, he continued to try to kiss him until Sora turned his face away to stop it. _Cold feet now?_ Thought the catboy with a determined shine in his eyes. After getting this close to Sora, he wasn't going to give up so easy. "Don't stop," he urged in a husky voice, "let's keep going."

"No, I -" Sora never finished that sentence. Instead, he turned a hurting expression to his pet. "It's not fair. You're leaving."

_Oh._ Why did Sora always have to do everything in extremes? Either he was as frigid as a nun or horny and demanding that they marry and live in a picket fence with their little kittens - or at least, that's how Dyne saw this sudden change in behavior. "That can't be helped. Come on Sora, I want to enjoy every moment I have with you."

Sora inhaled deeply, and then began to push his pet off his lap. "That's not enough."

Dyne was extremely reluctant to leave the place he'd claimed right on top of Sora's crotch. What he really wanted to do was dig his nails in and hump the boy until he came to his screaming senses, but the suffering expression on Sora's face saved him from that ordeal. Instead, the alien slid off to the side and watched Sora intently as he got up and shuffled to his room with shoulders hunched - and pants tented, which Dyne noted with almost vicious satisfaction.

What did Sora mean that it wasn't enough? What did he want from him? Ok, so maybe Sora wanted him to stay on planet Earth, but he couldn't because of the danger involved. Or maybe Riku was right all along and the whole claiming of the heart thing really did come first on this world. That last thought made the hair on Dyne's tail stand on end. The day he let Riku be right was the day he got neutered. He'd show HIM just how true love was created. It still burned him to remember the way Riku had his claws all over his Sora on the Lifestream.

"Who needs virginity when you got me," declared the alien aloud. Oh yes, today was only the beginning of showing Sora the light. Now he was more determined than ever to pop that precious cherry. But first, Dyne needed to find ugly humans on the television so that he could forget his own erection.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Later on that evening, Sora'a mother and Cloud finally returned from their getaway. They tiptoed through the home and spoke in hushed voices as they put their things away and prepared for turning in for the night. At the living room, Nessa paused behind the couch. The TV had been left on, and their cat was curled up on the sofa fast sleep.

It was hard to tell how mothers did it. Maybe it was a difference in the atmosphere of the home, or a strange indent on the couch, or a perfumed scent that only she could pick up. Still, she suspected in the way that all mothers do that her son had been recently engaged in illicit activities. Perhaps it was a silly notion of hers in the end, after all the only proof she could find was strands of cat hair on the couch. However, her intuition was sounding bells, and already she blamed herself for leaving a boy Sora's age home alone all the time.

She knew this day would come. It was inevitable and frightening, and she had been so afraid that she would have to deal with it on her own. However, Cloud was here and they were committed enough to share even this. Still, as she continued on to her room, she knew that a very troubled sleep awaited her.

_If it's true, please let it be Kairi._

Dyne's tail tapped the couch.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Early the next morning, the door to the student lounge slammed open. Out sailed Reno, who went flying head first out of the room as if he'd been shot out of a canon. He crashed to the floor, where he immediately pushed himself back to his feet shaking with humiliation and anger.

At the doorframe, Rude and Reeve were straightening up non-existent wrinkles on their suits supposedly caused by tossing Reno out.

The redheaded Turk bared his teeth in outrage. "It's true! The guy's a FREAK, you were there! You saw him!"

"Reno," said a cultured, almost bored voice from inside the student lounge. Rufus didn't even bother to leave his chair to "escort" Reno out of the vicinity. "As president of the student council, I think the least the student body can do is give me a little respect." He turned a page of his newspaper. "I order when stupid rumors are started, I don't become victim of them."

Reno surged forwards to burst back into the room, but Reeve and Rude blocked his way, faces stoic. "It's not a rumor and I'm not crazy! He's a fuckin' alien!!!"

Rufus sighed and was finally forced to put his newspaper down. "You're out of control Reno. You've crossed a line." He tilted his gaze to the doorway and glared at the redhead struggling to get in. "You're not a Turk anymore. If I see you trying to be one again, I would advise that you watch your back going home. Now get out of my sight."

With a snap of Rufus's fingers, Reno's former comrades shoved him away from the door. "Sorry Reno," whispered Reeve, "but this time you've gone too far." Afterwards, the door was slammed shut.

A silence reigned in the hallway as Reno tried to digest what just happened. Rufus didn't believe him; instead he thought that he was being played for a fool. What was worse, he was no longer a Turk, and considering how many enemies he'd made from a lifetime of bullying, that wasn't good news.

It was all Dyne's fault. Everything was his fault and Reno would be damned if he let the blonde bitch get away with this.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


By lunchtime, the school was buzzing with the news that Reno had been ousted from the Turks. In no time at all, people were throwing thrash at him in the hallways and stuffing death threats into his locker. A celebration of the redheaded Turk's fall from grace was going on at Sora's lunch table, but despite the fact that he should have been the loudest and the happiest, Sora was a little on the quiet side.

He couldn't stop thinking about the night before. When he decided not to go any further with Dyne, he'd made the right choice, right? Sure he was curious enough to want to see what was beyond kissing, he could admit that much. Still, it.. hurt to know that Dyne was leaving someday. What was he thinking anyway? Dyne was an alien. They probably "did it" different than humans anyway. And it's not like he was in love or anything, even if he couldn't stop thinking of the catboy all last night and now all day..

_Speaking of which, why does Dyne have to keep hanging all over Kairi like that?!_

If Dyne was at all affected by making out with Sora, there was no sign of it whatsoever. As usual, he was more interested in flirting with Kairi and being loud and obnoxious than doing anything else. At the moment, he was busy trying to lick Kairi's cheek, who was leaning away and laughing instead of being disgusted for once. Sora supposed that since Dyne was practically a cat, it was OK to be slobbered all over by the blonde menace. Maybe Dyne should just cut to the chase and hump Kairi's leg too. Oh, and while he was at it, he could pet the dimples right on top of her ass as if she had a tail to arch with -

"Whoa, Sora! I think your chocolate milk is calling for mercy."

Tidus's voice made Sora realize that he was squeezing his chocolate milk carton to the point of spillage.

"Why are you spacing out on us Sora? We should be CELEBRATING! Dyne is gonna beat Rufus for president, Reno is never going to terrorize anyone ever again, and Kairi," Selphie blinked her eyes as if she were truly crying, "is going to be our very own homecoming princess. OH GOD GIVE ME A HUG!"

Selphie leapt across the table to squeeze Kairi to death. This caused a big mess with their lunch trays, but no one cared. They were all high from having such a great party over the weekend and hearing great rumors about the future of the school's government and Reno. Somewhere inside, Sora was jubilant, but it was all overshadowed by the vision of Dyne and Kairi getting squashed in one of Selphie's vice-like hugs.

Catching Sora's eye, Dyne suggestively bit his lower lip and turned his gaze down to Sora's mouth.

Sora looked away with a blush.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Over the next few weeks, everyone was pretty busy. In the evenings, Sora, Kairi, Riku and Dyne rowed their way to the crash site to collect missing gummi blocks. Usually they couldn't spare more than two hours on it during the weekdays since Riku had track, Kairi had her cheerleader duties and Sora and Dyne had soccer practice. On top of that, the Homecoming dance was coming up as well as elections, so Kairi and Dyne were busy attending social gatherings together to solidify their support from fellow students.

Things were often awkward between Sora and Dyne, especially when it came time to sleep at night. As always, the catboy insisted on sleeping in the nude, which was bearable - until he began to emit pheromones as part of his Estrus cycle again. One morning, Sora woke up to find himself mindlessly rubbing his crotch against Dyne's. Ever since, he tried to lock Dyne out of his room at night, but more often than not the catboy always found a way back in; whether it was by picking the lock or blackmailing Sora with the threat that he would spend the night at Kairi's instead.

Before the temptation became too strong, Sora made Dyne write down the day his second Estrus would arrive. It was scheduled for a Sunday, and they both waited for that day, one with trepidation and the other with anticipation. This time though, Sora was prepared. Instead of locking Dyne away in the tool shed, he was going to leave him on the crash site with a tent and some rations. He would visit everyday to leave extra food and to check up on him, and in three days time the whole ordeal would be over.

There was just one thing that Sora completely forgot. His pet was a prolific liar.

On the Friday of the weekend that Dyne was to be moved to the island, the catboy stayed home from school. He claimed that he was cutting class to hang out with some popular people, something that Sora didn't approve of, but what could he do? Besides, the smell of cinnamon that morning was so strong that if he stuck around Dyne any longer he was going to swoon.

So Sora went to school and soccer practice as usual. He even watched Riku run for a bit and spent some time at Kairi's house to make brownies. When he finally came home, the house was saturated with the smell of cinnamon but there was no one in sight. Sora wondered where Dyne was hiding as he gathered his clothes and disappeared into the bathroom for a long, steaming shower. When he was done, he donned a pair of button down pajamas, brushed his teeth, and opened the bathroom door.

He found himself face to face with Dyne. A very naked, shaky, flushed Dyne.

"What took you so long," murmured the blonde in what would have been a sexy drawl if not for the edge of desperation in his voice.

Confused by Dyne's sudden appearance, Sora's eyes darted from left to right to search for clues because he was obviously missing something here. "I've.. Been home for over half an hour."

"I meant," Dyne planted his hands on the doorframe, effectively trapping Sora in the bathroom. "What took you so long to finish that shower? You kept me waiting."

"Did we have something planned?" Sora was starting to get weirded out by the situation. He tried to step past his pet, only to find that Dyne would move in the way to block him. "What's going on?"

Dyne's lips stretched into an unsettling smile. His tail was drifting back and forth in a slow way that Sora did not like. "Take off your pants."

Sora's face fell. "What?"

"You won't be needing them.~" Dyne closed the space between them and pressed his body flush against Sora's. His arms came to a curl around the boy's shoulders.

The moment that Sora felt Dyne's hard penis press against his stomach, he knew that he'd been had. "You said it was Sunday! You even wrote it down!" Immediately, he reached for his pet's hands and tried to pry them off.

Unfortunately, Dyne fisted Sora's shoulders hard to prevent their removal. His eyes narrowed dangerously. "Did you actually think that I was going to let you humiliate me twice?"

"But we talked about it! You said it was ok if I took you to the island -"

"I also said that I didn't forgive you!"

The next thing Sora knew, he was flying heads over heels and then he was back first on the floor. Dyne had never resorted to flipping him into the air like that before, which meant that Sora was in deep trouble. He scrambled to get up, but a foot planted against his chest prevented him from getting too far.

Dyne leered down at the brunette from above him. "I'm going to get right to the point since you heard this already. I want you, and we're going to fuck whether you like it or not." To accentuate this fact, he snapped a length of rope that he'd kept hidden until now.

"You're crazy!"

A phenomenal struggle ensued. The sound of things crashing and boys shouting carried on for about fifteen minutes. When the clamor died down, the winner was vainly attempting to fix the fur of his tail, and the loser was struggling against bindings that kept his arms tied behind a high-backed chair.

Sora was thoroughly mussed from their tousle. His cheeks were red from exertion, or perhaps the embarrassment of having his shirt unbuttoned and the drawstring of his pants untied and distended so that the hemline dropped dangerously low on his hips. This was not how he pictured his first time to be, not that he'd agreed that this was indeed going to be his first time.

When he was done making himself handsome for the occasion, Dyne turned a lazy smile in Sora's direction and seductively waved his newly groomed tail. All he got in response was silence, and it only took a few seconds to realize why: Sora wasn't breathing. "Are you trying to hold your breath?" At the lack of an answer, Dyne scowled and gave the boy's thigh a smack. Sora yelped and finally sucked in a lung-full of pheromone filled air. "That's better," purred Dyne as he lowered himself to Sora's lap and made himself very comfortable. "Just breathe, Sora. It'll all start feeling good soon."

"D-Dyne.." Sora was nervous beyond belief. He couldn't believe this was happening or that Dyne was serious about this. When he woke up this morning he didn't think that he'd be in this kind of situation. He was completely unprepared. "I, I can't do this. I'm not ready!"

A bite to Sora's earlobe silenced him. As before, the boy stilled, afraid that if he made Dyne angry then his ear would be bitten off. Surprisingly, instead of teeth Sora felt Dyne's tongue curl to cradle the lobe and suck. Oh god, he didn't know if he really liked this or if the scented air was making his body turn to jelly.

When Dyne released Sora's lobe from his lips, he stayed close to whisper wantonly to Sora's ear, "You watch me everywhere I go. You stare at my mouth, thinking 'gosh gee, I want to kiss him again' don't you Sora? You like how my mouth feels on you, that's why you blush when you look at me."

Sora's cheeks burned with embarrassment. Obviously, he'd only been fooling himself when he believed that Dyne never noticed him staring. "That doesn't mean you can do this." His breath hitched when he felt nails skim the sides of his body up and down, making his nerves sing with anticipatory pleasure. It was so hard to think, and when Dyne pressed a shivering kiss to his lips, Sora responded with the shame of knowing that it was true: he did want to do this again. Again and again if it kept making him feel this good.

When the kiss broke, Sora flopped his head over the back of the chair. Dyne was grinding against his crotch and emitting pronounced "rrro"'s of pleasure, an action that was making Sora so hot that he was beginning to sweat. Distantly, he knew he was being drugged, and yet there was a part of him that told him to just give up and give in. Let this happen. Let him satisfy his curiosity and find out what was the big deal about this act. Give Dyne what he wants and make him shut up.

"You know you want this. Don't be a prude." These 'romantic' words were murmured as Dyne pushed Sora's shirt off his shoulder so that he could lick the skin.

Sora caught himself opening his mouth to moan. Realizing that his control was slipping, he gathered what was left of his wits for one more protest. "When people do this, they usually don't do it WHEN THEY'RE TIED UP! Let me go!" He began to buck out of his chair, but to his horror, the jerking motions of his hips made Dyne yowl with need. Sora stopped bouncing in fear of being heard by someone, even though the house was perfectly empty. His voice lowered to a plaintive whisper. "Please! I don't want to do this! I just can't!"

Now flushed and shivering no thanks to Sora, Dyne returned the favor by flicking his thumbs against both of Sora's nipples. "What are you waiting for?"

The sensations thrilling from the base of his spine made Sora bite his lip. "I want to be in love."

Dyne laughed deeply in his throat, and then he stroked his thumb over a corner of Sora's mouth until his lips were released from his teeth. He leaned down and treated Sora to a kiss that was even more sensual than any they had shared in the past.

It was the kiss that won Sora over. He now accepted that he wanted Dyne, even if a part of him continued to doubt that it was right. After all, they were so different. They hadn't known each other for very long, and Dyne was one of the most impolite people he'd ever met. Sora was never going to be able to introduce him to his mom as a real boyfriend or share his first experience with a lover with his closest friends.

Still, what they were doing now ranked up there with one of the most thrilling adventures he'd ever had in his life, and his body loved it.

When their lips detached with a wet smack, Dyne was pleased to see the glazed, lidded look in Sora's blue eyes. The irises were dilated, indicating that he was completely under the influence of the pheromones in the air. In Katina, it was said that one of the most beautiful things that any cat would ever get to see was that of the distressed kitling who both wanted and feared the union of their first Estrus. Although Sora was no cat, seeing him breathe deeply and struggle with virginal fear and need convinced Dyne that the old fogies from the citadel knew what they were talking about. His soon to be mate was beautiful.

"You can still fall in love after this." Dyne smiled, and neglected to mention that Sora could only fall in love with the people that he personally approved. "But I'll tell you what." His voice became low and intimate, matching the sinuous way his tail was dancing. "If you can say that you don't want this and mean it, then I'll stop."

They stared at each other for a few moments, and Dyne broke the gaze to place gentle kisses that trailed from Sora's cheek to his mouth. A rough lick left the boy's lips raw and red. Then his tongue rounded the cleft of Sora's chin and traced the delicate skin of his throat with a tenderness that flowed seamlessly into a bite to the jugular.

Sora was drowning. His eyelids fluttered involuntarily and he kept squirming in his seat, though even he couldn't say whether he was trying to avoid Dyne's ministrations or make himself available for more. When he felt a path being licked to his left nipple, he made his first attempt at halting things. "..Stop."

It surprised Sora how completely devoid of conviction his voice was. As if answering him, Dyne began to purr as he funneled his tongue around the boy's nipple and sucked. His fingers dug into the flesh of Sora's hips as he pawed him out of habit.

The pretty flush to Sora's cheeks turned a very dark purple. His heart was beating so hard and fast that he was sure that Dyne could hear it. He didn't realize he was holding his breath again until Dyne released his nub, gave a kiss to the darkened areola beneath it, and then continued down his ribs towards his navel.

Goosebumps rose all over Sora's skin. He shut his eyes tightly in an attempt to clear his mind before trying to slow things down again. "..Stop," but this time, not only did the word still lack conviction, it came in a humiliating squeak.

Completely discounting the pathetically voiced protests, Dyne continued to Sora's bellybutton and dipped his tongue into it. The muscles of the boy's abdomen quivered and the bulge in his pants became even more pronounced. Recognizing this area for the erogenous zone that it was, Dyne spent a few extra moments tracing the navel and pressing deeply into it.

Meanwhile, the hem of Sora's pants was tugged low enough to expose the soft down of his pubic hair. Feeling the draft down there made the brunette fall into a mix of panic and anticipation. "..S-stop.." A wheezing gasp sifted past his lips when Dyne groomed the hairs of his pelvis with his tongue. "..Ss.."

Dyne nibbled the area where Sora's skin began to stretch for his penis, and then he removed the pants and underwear in his way with one fast jerk. The rebound of Sora's cock was caught with the surface of Dyne's tongue, which conveniently led the head of the boy's penis right into his mouth. The throaty moan that tore from Sora was very encouraging.

In reality, all this foreplay was driving Dyne to madness. All he wanted to do was consummate their mating, but he was fighting instinct because the last time he rushed it, Sora bailed out on him. From that past mistake, he learned that the way to Sora's body needed to be paved with coddling and caressing, as if the boy was a very spoiled kitten.

As fun as it was to make Sora look as if he was going to faint every time he dug his tongue into the frenulum beneath the head of his cock, Dyne decided to collect what was owed to him. There would be time later to play with Sora's foreskin, a part of the boy's body that had amused Dyne ever since he first saw him naked. All cats had theirs removed since Estrus was traumatic enough without having an extra layer of nerves to make it that much worse.

A nip was given to the boy's balls before Dyne leaned away and stood up. Finally, Sora was given a break from moaning and could now rest his head against the back of the chair and gasp for air. It wasn't until Dyne's tail curled around his neck that he peered forward again and realized that his pet had turned around in preparation to mount him.

This was the event that everything culminated to. Every boyish fantasy he'd ever had of being inside someone beautiful and warm shattered with the reality of having his glans guided to Dyne's anus. All of his questions of how it would feel became answered when the tip of his dick caught, and then began to slide into Dyne's rectum with the aid of gravity, the natural lubrication of his precum and the sliding action of his foreskin. Obviously, the catboy was made for this kind of penetration because there was not a trace of discomfort or pain on his face, only bliss as his tail twitched and Sora snaked inside of him inch by inch.

Dyne's cat ears flattened themselves to the sides of his head in complete surrender to this moment. Once he was seated on top of Sora's balls, he slowly leaned back and rested his head against the boy's shoulder. It was everything and more than he ever imagined. Ecstasy, security, affection, closeness, and a hundred other things that he'd wanted to share with someone he could trust. One of his hands shakily lifted to touch the side of Sora's face.

Being tied up wasn't fair, Sora had a strong urge to hug Dyne to himself and affirm that they were really here and doing this to each other. At the touch to his cheek, he tilted his head towards his pet and met him halfway in a nuzzle that flowered into a brief, gentle kiss. When Dyne began to purr at him, he smiled affectionately and did his best imitation of a cat-like purr back at him. Dyne grinned at the effort, and then proceeded to make Sora scream by impaling himself on the boy's cock with fast, determined strokes.

Masturbation didn't hold a candle to this. Sora wasn't just going to cum, he was going to explode. He sunk as low in the chair as his bound hands allowed so that he could curve his pelvis up and give Dyne all of his penis to work with. He panted ecstatically with his pet on their ride to oblivion, a trip that surprisingly lasted only 30 seconds for Dyne. With a pleasured mewl, the blonde spilled a copious amount of semen on Sora's legs with an almost convulsive shiver.

Poor Sora had no idea that his partner had already finished. It came as a surprise to him when Dyne rolled his hips one last time with a pronounced "rrrro," and then stood up to allow Sora's dick to pop out of his ass. Sora emitted a nonplussed "buh" in protest of it. He stared at Dyne with raw need that begged his pet to help him finish.

On the other hand, Dyne looked rather refreshed. He helped pull Sora up from his seat and guided him by his bound wrists to the nearby desk. With a firm press to the boy's back, he made Sora bend over, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically since he hit the wood hard enough to rattle the pencil bins and picture frames on the top of the desk. While Sora was still too drugged with pheromones to realize what was going on, Dyne kicked the boy's ankles until his legs were spread apart.

"Sex lesson number two," murmured Dyne huskily. He elicited a deep shiver from Sora by tonguing the base of his spine. "Aside from having a very flexible rectum, we Katinans are also capable of sustaining erections even after ejaculation."

Sora was beyond the point of being able to process what those words meant. All he wanted was to go back to doing it with Dyne until the heady need that was infecting him was over. He was too horny to be afraid of whatever was going to happen next. All too soon, his world dissolved into a pool of desire when he felt Dyne lick him from balls to ass, and then proceed to show him how fearless Katinans were when it came to pleasuring their mates.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


"I always told him that he should never have sex unless he was in love. I know that might not have been the smartest thing to say because god knows how many times you "fall in love" when you're that young, but I didn't want him to turn into one of those, those disgusting lover boys who go around nailing everything that has two legs."

Cloud nodded to show Nessa that he was still following her. The question of Sora's virginity had become a recent hot topic in the bedroom. It was their tradition to talk about their day before they went to sleep, and the question of what Sora did when he was home alone had taken a huge chunk of their conversation ever since they came home to find the television on. In Cloud's opinion, forgetting to turn off the TV was not proof that Sora was meeting girls in the living room, but Nessa was utterly convinced that this aberration in his behavior was solid proof.

Like most smart men, Cloud just nodded and agreed.

"I should have told him not to have sex until he was at least 18. That's a reasonable number right? He'll be starting college, he'll be more emotionally mature, he'll - he'll have at least reached a point in his life where if something went wrong, he would at least have the ability to work and pay for child support."

"I think you're getting a little bit ahead of yourself." Cloud was doing his best to appear perfectly serious and not laugh.

"Cloud, you don't understand how hard it is as a woman to raise a boy. He'll only listen to me for so long before he realizes that I'm not a man and I don't understand a man's needs."

"I'll talk to him."

"You will?"

"Yes. He came to me before for advice. I'll talk to him."

"Oh thank god." Nessa leaned over the blankets to give Cloud a hug. "..So what exactly was this advice that he asked you for?"

It was going to be a long night.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Sora's slippery skin rubbed over the surface of the table. All around him, the picture frames filled with the smiling faces of his friends were being rattled by their foundations. He held back his tears as he was jostled roughly against the desk.

Dyne paused in his thrusting to peer over at the boy. "Don't worry, I won't break anything.~" He winked at Sora, and then resumed driving his semen soaked cock into Sora's ass. Unfortunately, he didn't have the convenience of a foreskin, so he relied on good old saliva and some of his recently spent ejaculate to make things easier for Sora. He was careful not to penetrate further than an inch deep since this was the human's first time, but he was sure that with a little practice, Sora's ass would take all of him and love it.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


[Hi. You won't find Sora anywhere this weekend because we're going on Cloud and Nessa's Love Boat of Doom. If we don't come back, assume that we've died a watery death. As you humans say, leave a message.]

_Beep._

Riku scowled when he heard Dyne's voice on Sora's answering service. He found it so disturbing that he forgot that he was supposed to say something for a few seconds. "Sora. Mind giving us a heads up the next time you go on vacation with your mom and Cloud? Kairi and I are spending our weekends working on those gummi blocks you know. Anyway, I called because I know who won the homecoming race. Guess I'll tell you on Monday."

The call was ended and the cell phone was placed on the dresser. Riku thought it was unusual for Sora not to mention that he would be out for the weekend. Something fishy was going on, although he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was at the moment.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


After being placed on the bed, Sora was released from his bindings. There were aches and pains in places he didn't even know could hurt, yet the buzz in his head made the agony feel distant. He was too stoned to attempt rubbing the feeling back into his arms or to wonder if the pain in his ass meant that he had suffered some serious damage. The room was spinning and he still felt horny as hell.

Dyne was taking the time to lick his lover clean. It had been mildly disappointing when he came inside Sora's ass too soon to bring the boy to orgasm while he fucked him. Although the catboy was capable of multiple orgasms in a row, the time between them was rather short thanks to the fact that his Estrus was making him cum gallons of semen. Clearly, all the food he ate in preparation of this event was used as a store for the calories of energy he would be spending during his mating.

Poor Sora's cock had softened while he had been taken from behind. Dyne supposed that he didn't get deep enough to rub the boy's prosthetics or whatever that organ was that was hiding somewhere in the human rectum. Unfortunately, the literature on male on male sex had been very limited, and Dyne was only able to research snatches of it in the few moments that he had alone with access to that kind of information.

In any case, making Sora cum was a problem that was easily rectified. A few strokes of his tongue to the boy's genitals made the blood flow back into them. When it was standing at a satisfactory angle, Dyne crawled up so that he was face to face with Sora. "Why haven't you cum yet?" He asked in a breathless voice.

It took a few moments before Sora could gain the presence of mind to answer. "I.. think cuz.. I did it in.. shower.."

Dyne's interested expression collapsed into disgust. "If you need a dick to touch, do mine. Now," the blonde rolled onto his side so that his butt was facing Sora. His tail wrapped around the boy's waist to coax him into spooning behind him. Dyne pulled both of his knees to his chest, a position that effectively helped to open up his ass and give Sora's cock plenty of room to work. "Fuck me. And pet me while you do it."

Like a slave, Sora prodded Dyne's butt with his cock until he found the right spot, and then he pushed his way in with a deep moan. This time, with his hands free, he was able to caress the skin of his lover's body while he pleasured him into purring.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


The next day, Sora's mother knocked on the door. "Sora! Aren't you going to wake up for breakfast?" She paused for an answer, but upon hearing none she knocked again. "Sora?"

"..I already ate mom."

Nessa's eyebrows furrowed together. "What's wrong with your voice?"

"Moooom, I just woke up."

"I'm going out with Cloud again today. Are you sure you're going to be ok home alone?"

"Mmmhmm."

"You better do your chores."

"Mmmhmm."

Not for the first time, Nessa doubted the prudence of leaving her son home alone so often. She supposed it was too late now; he was already accustomed to this type of lifestyle. More and more though, she wished she could have done things differently. Her son was changing so much and so fast, she didn't even recognize his voice anymore. "Alright, we're leaving now. Take care."

Dyne had both a human ear pressed against the door and one of his triangular ones tilted towards it. He listened to the sounds of Sora's mother walking down the hallway and leaving the house, and then gleefully bounded his way back to the bed once she was gone. Thank god they left, he didn't think he could pull off impersonating Sora for the entire weekend.

Speaking of Sora, the boy was completely passed out. He was utterly motionless as Dyne happily licked his face and settled down on top of him. The third lesson that Sora learned the night before was that the peak cycle of the Estrus lasted for three days. Eventually, he got to a point where he couldn't even get hard anymore, which was rectified by becoming the bottom to Dyne's ravenous appetite. All night long.

Thankfully, some of the edge had been taken off Dyne's desire, which was why he was able to cuddle and let Sora sleep like this now. There were no words to describe how happy and fulfilled he felt after their mating. He would do anything for Sora. For the first time, he began to consider ways to stay on planet Earth instead of leaving to draw the forces of Katina away. True, it was selfish of him to jeopardize Sora's family and friends, but he no longer cared. Sora was worth it. He could see his kittens in the boy's too blue eyes.

Another hour of sleep, and then he'd wake Sora up for more lovemaking. If the boy was still impotent from too much sex, then Dyne would have to teach him how to use his hands and mouth for pleasuring. It was a shame that Sora didn't have a tail, as that would have come in very handy.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


[As you humans say, leave a message.]

_Beep._

"So it's true, you guys went on vacation and left us behind to work on the ship. You so owe us Sora!" Kairi planted one hand against her hip. The ocean breeze stirred the indigenous trees of the island and brought some relief from the heat. Riku was snorkeling offshore, looking for gummi blocks that may have sunk beneath the water. "You could have at least left your cell phone on." The girl sighed. "Look, I.. the votes for homecoming are being counted this weekend, and I just wanted to thank you for helping me. I know you hate the whole princess deal, but it means a lot to me. It means a lot because.."

Kairi paused, suddenly unable to go on. Her throat went dry and her fingers tingled with nervousness. "..It just does. Take care of yourself, Sora."

The call was ended.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


The open faucet made the water level inside the bathtub steadily rise, the slightly hot temperature of the liquid perfect for assuaging the aches in Sora's muscles. Jumping into the bathtub had been a last resort in his attempts to get Dyne to stop having sex, at least long enough until he recuperated. For two hours he'd been sitting in the tub, which was occasionally refilled with heated water so that he stayed comfortable.

Dyne was sitting on the bathroom tiles, ears flattened off to the sides and wearing a pathetic look on his face. He was horny, and he found it cruel that he was being denied his relief this way. "Sooooooraaaa."

"Just do it yourself."

"How many times do I have to tell you that it's crude and demeaning?"

"Making me do it again and again is crude and demeaning." Sora shot his new lover a glare.

Dyne didn't even look repentant. He scooted closer so that he could fold his hands over the edge of the tub and rest his head against them. The gaze that he gave Sora was amorous. "I can't help it. Neither can you. That's what pheromones do. Make us want each other." Dyne smiled and gave his tail a playful flick. "It won't leave too bad of a headache when it wears off. So get out of there already so we can enjoy each other.~"

Sora sighed and shook his head. "I never thought my first time would be like this."

"Me neither," murmured Dyne as he traced the edge of the tub with a finger. "Come on Sora, I don't want to wait anymore. I want you."

"If you want me so bad then get in the tub."

"No way, I'll die!"

"You'll die happy." A flirtatious lilt colored Sora's voice. Then he shifted his eyes momentarily to his lap, just to draw Dyne's attention to the rare, full erection that was standing at attention.

Dyne licked his lips upon seeing Sora's ready cock. He bounced a bit on his heels, but then shrank away upon remembering that the boy was lying in a pool of water. Noting his pet's reaction, Sora smiled and gave himself a long stroke. Dyne emitted a groan that was somewhere between disgust and want. "You'll.. you'll keep me from drowning right?"

"Of course I'll protect you. Come on." Sora gestured to the tub's interior with his chin.

Dyne's tail drooped to the tiled floor. For a long time he just stared, and then shivered when Sora gave himself another squeeze. He tapped his fingers against the tub as he deliberated, and then tentatively he rose to his feet. One his legs lifted over the tub, but the moment his toe touched the water he recoiled. Sora laughed.

"It's not funny!"

Sora stopped chuckling and just grinned at Dyne. "You know, I think I'm going to stay in here for another hour."

Dyne scowled. This wasn't FAIR. He bounced on his heels a bit, and then tried to get inside again. This time, one foot dipped into the water, and his tail fuzzed out with fright. Sora encouraged him by holding onto the submerged ankle and nodding for Dyne to go on. Looking more frazzled by the second, Dyne carefully lifted his other leg over the side of the tub and settled it into the water. Then he began to squat, so slowly that Sora had to control himself not to start laughing again. When his bottom was just a centimeter shy of touching the warm water, Dyne stopped and wouldn't move anymore.

At least, he didn't move until Sora placed a wet hand against his bottom. This startled Dyne so much that he slipped and crashed into the water and Sora with a yelp. He immediately went into a panic and began scrabbling to leave the tub, but Sora prevented him from going too far by grabbing his pet's body and holding it tight.

"Sssh, ssh, it's ok! You're not drowning, you're just making a mess." Sora was unable to keep the laughter out of his voice this time.

"I'm dying!!"

"Will you stop saying that! You're fine."

It took about five minutes for Dyne to be "fine." Just like the first time Sora had bathed his pet, when the catboy finally calmed he went very still and brooding. After making sure that Dyne wasn't going to try to escape, Sora stopped holding him so tightly. One of his hands lifted to pet damp blonde hair. "See, the water's not hurting you. You're ok, and we're together."

Dyne hated the way his tail gained about 5 pounds in weight from being wet. He didn't like being soaked or the strange sensation of being swallowed by liquid. Yet, even in this hellish tub of death, he found himself unwilling to trade this moment for anything in the universe. "You make me do crazy things."

"You? I'm sleeping with an alien."

They shared a laugh, and then Dyne nuzzled Sora's nose. "So. Where were we?"

Sora's smile turned a little lazy.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


_Beep._

"Sora, your ass is grass when Cid sees you on Monday. You and Dyne were supposed to be at practice this weekend. Did you forget the big game on Tuesday? You're so dead. But not as dead as Reno. You should have SEEN it. When he showed up today, he got egged by his Turkey friends. Or ex-friends, or whatever, he got a taste of his own medicine and you missed it! You need to call me back man. You're missing some cool stuff. Tidus out!"

End call.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Dyne lounged on Sora's bed as if he were the king of the Nile. His newly established mate was moving lethargically about the room as he prepared to go to school. Obviously, Dyne had no intentions of going himself, considering how late it was and he was still naked. Not that he was in any condition to go anyway; it was the third day of his Estrus and he was finally feeling exhausted. He'd pretty much burned up all the energy he'd been storing for three days of marathon sex, but even though he was destined to spend the rest of the day sleeping he didn't like the thought of being left alone while Sora was at school.

"Stay."

"Can't." Now that he was done dressing, Sora walked over to his bed and sat down next to Dyne. He brushed his thumb against his pet's cheek, earning a purr from his blonde friend. "A lot of people are waiting to see me today."

"Tell them you have a lover now."

"That doesn't mean I can just ignore everything else. My mom would go crazy."

"Fine." Dyne rolled to his back and hooked his hands behind his knees. "Suck me off and I'll let you go."

Sora rolled his eyes. He came to a kneel above his pet's head and reached over to grasp the catboy's legs. He practically folded Dyne in half by pulling his knees up and back until the alien's swollen cock was dangling close to the blonde's mouth. "Say aaa."

"I said you, not me!"

"You're not masturbating, I'm helping." Sora leaned in between Dyne's legs and gave his balls a lick.

A shudder went through Dyne's body, but he still narrowed his eyes at Sora. All he was asking for was one little blowjob, and that's it! He was NOT going to do it himself.

A second lick was all Dyne needed to be convinced. "D-don't tell anybody ok?"

"If you don't tell anybody then I won't tell anybody." Funny, how their relationship always seemed to revolve around secrets. Sora smiled down at Dyne, and then reminded him of the task at hand when he mimed opening his mouth.

A very rare red blush colored Dyne's cheeks as he parted his lips and took the head of his own cock into his mouth. Just the other day he was wallowing in water, now he was doing something considered beyond dirty by his people. Yet, because it was with Sora it felt wonderful.

Suddenly, Dyne realized just how much power this human had over him. It shouldn't have surprised him; it was inevitable for every kitling that they would become irreparably attached to their First. Thank the goddesses that it was Sora that he ended up with. When he woke up this morning cuddled next to his new mate, a weight lifted from Dyne's chest. He was no longer in danger of being bound to someone who would treat him badly. Sora was freedom. For that, he would gladly suck his own cock.

In the beginning of their trysts, Dyne came too soon and Sora wouldn't come at all. By the end though, they had synced up very well and their lovemaking had become very satisfying. Sora was loathe to leave Dyne for school, but after seeing the amount of messages left on his cell phone he knew that if he didn't show his face today then it wouldn't be too long before his friends looked for him at his house.

It took five minutes to get Dyne off. The catboy dutifully sucked his own cock while Sora nibbled his balls and laved his shaft. When orgasm finally came, a manageable two teaspoonfuls of cum - as compared to the cups of semen he'd been spilling days ago - shone white in Dyne's mouth.

Sora released his pet's legs, which flopped tonelessly to the mattress. He kissed Dyne's forehead and cheek, and promised that he would come straight home after school. Then he left the room, but not without pausing to give Dyne a longing look over his shoulder.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


The change in Sora's demeanor did not escape the notice of his friends at school. His afterglow outshone all the commotion around the upcoming homecoming games, the dance, and the rumors. Tidus had to snap his fingers at Sora just to get him to focus over lunch, and Kairi repeated herself to him several times just to be heard. Although the boy was physically in school, it was obvious that his mind was elsewhere.

"Earth to Sora."

Riku knocked on Sora's locker just to get his best friend to look up at him.

Sora blinked as if he was coming out of a trance, and finally managed a distracted smile. "Hey."

"Hey? Is that all you have to say after disappearing over the weekend?"

Sora had no idea that Dyne had changed his voicemail in preparation of their sexual weekend extravaganza; he thought that Riku was referring to ditching his duties at the crash site. "Uh.."

"Are you ok? You look spaced out."

"I'm fine! I'm just.."

"It's from being around Cloud right?"

_What? Cloud?_ What did he have to do with anything? Sora looked utterly clueless.

"Anyway, I suppose you don't want to know who are the homecoming princesses since you haven't asked me about it."

That got Sora's attention. He was drawn out of his fog long enough to give Riku an excited look. "Did Kairi win?"

"I'm not saying now. You lost your chance."

"Oh come on Riku!"

Riku smirked at Sora. "I'll tell you after track practice."

Sora looked away as he bit his lip. "I'm.. going home. I'm not going to soccer practice either."

"Are you crazy? You've missed practice three days in a row. Cid is going to murder you."

"Yeah, I know. I kind of want to avoid him. Just call me later ok?"

"Fine, go home. And tell Dyne he can't keep skipping class, he'll just draw attention to himself."

"Ok." At the mention of Dyne's name, Sora's smile became very bright. "I'll catch you later Riku!"

"Later."

Sora patted Riku on the bicep and then he practically bounced his way out of school to go home. Riku shook his head and wondered what happened to make Sora so happy all of a sudden.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


The moment that Sora entered his room, he placed his backpack on the floor and slipped into bed beside Dyne. They shared an embrace and a kiss, and then he gazed at his lover with affection as he petted the wild blonde hair that swept up into spikes.

"Is this love?" Sora asked in a hushed whisper.

Dyne's cat ears tilted forwards, as if he needed an extra set just to make sure that he had heard Sora right. He examined his mate's face, which was open and questioning and maybe a little hopeful.

"Don't complicate things so much, Sora."

Dyne reached over and affectionately smoothed the boy's bangs, and then momentarily blinded his lover when his palms passed over Sora's eyes.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Late afternoon, Riku was walking down the hallways of the school with his duffel bag in hand. His cell phone was pulled from his pocket so that he could speed dial Sora's number. To his surprise, Sora's familiar ring tone began echoing in the hallway. Frowning, he followed the noise to its source, which turned out to be Sora's locker.

Riku gave the metal door a flat look as he turned off his phone and stored it away. Considering how much money was spent on the birthday gift, it would have been nice if Sora would at least keep it with him.

He was kind of spaced out though, Riku thought to himself. Sora should be glad that his best friend was nice enough to return his phone to him before he freaked out upon finding it missing later. Thankfully, the number to Sora's combination lock was no mystery to Riku; they had known each other's codes since the first day they came to this school. After making quick work of the lock, the boy opened the locker and retrieved Sora's cell phone from the mess inside.

After the locker was closed again, Riku peered down at the view screen of his friend's cell phone. The wallpaper consisted of a picture of Sora, Kairi and Riku huddled together and smiling. Riku recognized it from the party. Grinning, he went into Sora's picture folder and began scrolling through the other images of the party that he'd missed.

That was how he came across an inaccessible folder. It was entitled "stuff" and when Riku tried to open it a password prompt showed up. One of his eyebrows quirked upwards. What was so secret that Sora had to hide it from prying eyes? Well, there was only one way to find out. Riku felt something of a thrill as he started to hack into Sora's phone using every password that he knew.

First he tried Sora's, Kairi's and his own initials to see if it would go through. SKR? RKS? KSR? RSK?

No go. Then he tried old passwords they'd had in the past. Treasure. Swords. Rotten Eggs. Cooties.

None of those worked either. Suddenly, a thought occurred to Riku, one that made his stomach do a flop. Tentatively, he inputted a new password they'd never used before.

Dyne.

The folder opened.

The first picture that popped up was one of Sora. It was shot of him lying in his bed surrounded by pillows and blankets. The camera only picked up everything up to his torso, which was bare and curved upwards. Sora was sweaty and had his face tilted off to the side, but he still managed to fix shining eyes on whoever was holding the camera.

Normally, Riku would have uploaded the picture to his phone for "safekeeping" in less than 10 seconds, but there was something very disturbing about finding a picture like that under a folder that had been password protected with Dyne's name. He hit the arrow button to see the next picture.

He nearly dropped the phone.

It was a picture of Dyne looking at the camera with a big smile on his face and someone's dick in his hand. White cum was dribbling from the slit; the picture had been snapped just as it was about to fall right onto his waiting tongue.

Riku felt as if he'd just been punched in the stomach. Time ceased to move. His heart turned to ice. There were more pictures, but he couldn't bring himself to look at them. A deep-seated chill like he'd never felt before buzzed in his veins. Slowly, he sank into a squat, at first unable to stop staring at the phone, then shutting his eyes tightly to block out what he was seeing. Both of his hands lifted to rake through his loose hair, his head bowing and fingers curling to clutch and pull at silver strands.

It was over.

Sora was fucking Dyne.  
  
  
  
**To be continued.**  
  
  



	10. Chapter Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Author** : Cold Silence  
>  **E-Mail** : writer.coldsilence@gmail.com  
>  **Pairings** : Riku + Kairi + Sora, Sora x BHK. (BHK = Blonde Headed Kid from KH II)  
>  **Warnings** : AU, Yaoi, Het, Furs, Dubious Consent. OOC Roxas due to the fandom personality he was given before information on his character was released with KH2.  
>  **Webpage** : https://coldsilence.tumblr.com/post/433113072/index
> 
> **Special Note** : This fic has relationships with things that have tails. Also, this story was started before Roxas's name was revealed, hence why he is named differently in this fic. Don't worry though, this actually fits well with what I have planned for him in the end.  
>   
>   
> 

**Fuzzy Love**  
- _Chapter Ten_ -  
  


"I haven't seen such shitty playing since that one legged kid tried out for soccer fifteen years ago. If I wanted a couple of pansies on the field, then I would be coaching the cheerleader team, not the %&*##* soccer team! My grandmother could have passed the ball with more power than you kids did today, and she's dead!"

It was Tuesday afternoon, and the soccer team had just finished its first game of the season. Sora was always going to remember today as the worst day of his life. Not only did Cid rip Dyne and himself a new one before the game for missing practice over the weekend, but once the match was over he singled them out again for another after game trashing.

"Sora, you played like you had a stick up your ass and you," Cid waved a finger at Dyne, "if you weren't so busy being cocky you might actually be out there making goals instead of wasting our time."

"Jesus Cid, it's not like we lost." Dyne looked particularly bored with this speech.

"You think winning is going to matter when you graduate from this school? Let me tell you something you little @*^&&*. When you play on my team, you give it all you got. Whether you 're losing or winning, you give 100% every single time, because when you get out of here," Cid pointed sideways towards the locker room's exit, "giving 100% is what is going to get you through life. Now get the hell out of my sight."

Painfully, Sora arose from the bench and hobbled off to his locker. Since that morning, throughout school, during the game and the speeches, all he could think about was how bad it hurt to be fucked for three days straight. Dyne had warned him that he would be feeling under the weather when the pheromones wore off, but he didn't say anything about the slow burn that was searing his ass.

The horror started in the morning. Sora woke up with pain, and when he used the bathroom he was horrified to find semen mixed in with the other ordinary stuff that usually came out of his body. It scared him to think that something may have been seriously injured inside of him, and he was humiliated at the mere thought of having to seek help from someone else to fix it. For the first time, the full gravity of what he'd done hit him full force. He wasn't a virgin anymore, he'd done it with his alien cat, and now he was surely going to die from internal injuries.

Dyne had assured him that everything was ok. Humans just weren't as elastic down there as Katinans were; the pain was just a bad reaction that would go away once Sora got used to Dyne's size. As for the filmy ejaculate that was leaking out of his ass, that was something to be proud of for it was a sign of his mate's undying affection. Sora was not convinced.

Unfortunately, they had no choice but to come to school. His mom wasn't buying Sora's claim that he was sick, and it was very likely that Cid was going to come to the house himself and drag them out to play in the game. Therefore, Sora had to endure a grueling day of sitting uncomfortably in chairs and running himself raw on the soccer field. He felt taxed beyond belief, and it was only 5' o clock.

On the other hand, Dyne didn't suffer any aftereffects from their weekend romp at all. Instead, he felt sublimely happy and uplifted. He was content to spend the entire day shadowing Sora and adoring him secretly. When it came to the soccer match, Dyne barely put any effort into it because he honestly didn't care. The reason he joined in the first place was to get closer to Sora, and now that he achieved that goal he couldn't give a rat's ass about what Cid wanted.

Sora remained silent as he went to his locker to fetch his things. He wasn't going to bother showering because he was too tired and in too much pain to do it. After taking out his jacket, he checked the pockets to confirm that his missing cell phone was there. Touching it brought back memories of writhing in passion while Dyne sucked his cock until he came. His pet had very naughtily taken pictures without asking and then password protected them so that Sora couldn't delete his triumphant moment of finally making the boy cum.

Sora was going to throttle Dyne until he coughed up the password when he was feeling better. For now, he closed his locker and rested his head against it. He decided that this was a punishment. The pain, the speeches, the long never-ending day. It was all a punishment for being a sexual deviant. He believed that the pain in his body was radiating all the way down to his soul.

"You don't actually buy what that asshole said, do you?" Dyne was worried by the hopeless expression on Sora's face. "It was just one game, a game that we won anyway. It wasn't the end of the world."

"You don't understand." Sora pushed up from his locker. "Soccer is important. Its always been important to me."

"For what?" Agitation crept into Dyne's voice. "Just you can measure yourself up to Riku? Forget him!" In his opinion, Riku was now a thing of the past. Sora was his mate, so had no business thinking of Riku anymore.

"How can you tell me something like that? He's my best friend, he was here before you. And it's not even about that - I don't even know who I am anymore!" Thankfully, there wasn't anybody in the hallway to hear the way Sora's voice was escalating in volume. Since Cid had taken an extra long time to chew them out, most of the kids had already cleared out of the school building.

To answer Sora's question, Dyne squared his shoulders and puffed up his chest as if he had the fur to give it a good effect. "You are Sora," he stated with utmost conviction, "and you are the Alpha of our family to be."

"What does that mean?" Sora felt as if the world were spinning. God, he was hurting. "Does that mean you're my boyfriend now?"

"If you want to put it in human terms," Dyne paused as he tried to think of a good word to match what an Alpha meant in Sora's language. "You are now my husband."

............. HUSBAND. Sora stared at Dyne as if he was insane. "Y-you're crazy! I'm not your husband! I'm too young to be married, this is crazy!" Sora hastily gathered his things and began walking stiffly away.

"Where are you going?" Dyne's voice was laced with demand as he doggedly followed Sora down the hallway.

"I promised I'd see Riku do his first track meet today."

"Did you listen to a thing I just said?" Dyne grabbed the hooded part of Sora's jacket. "I said forget Riku! What matters is us. We should be thinking of where to go from here. Let go of who you were in the past and stop being afraid. You are an adult now!"

Hysterically, Sora fought off Dyne's grip until he was free. "I am not an adult! I'm fifteen years old! I'm fifteen! I'm not anyone's husband, I don't know the first thing about starting a family, and I shouldn't even be having sex. But I did because I'm stupid and now it hurts, it hurts so bad!"

"Sora." Sora turned his face away, and Dyne stepped closer to get into the boy's field of vision again. "Sora, you're only spazzing because you didn't think it was going to hurt. Your body is fine, your ass is just rug burned, that's all. When you feel better, you'll wish we could do it all over again."

Sora made a disgusted sound. To his ears, it sounded like Dyne was boasting, even if he wasn't. "Shut up! Just go away. I don't want to see your face anymore."

Dyne most certainly did not want to go away. He wanted Sora to stop being childish and take up the mantle of being the new head of their family. Unfortunately, what he wanted was now secondary to Sora's wishes. The new bond he had with his mate told him that if their family didn't succeed, then he would lose all sense of his identity. That was the terrible truth of the Estrus, which came to him with alarming clarity after he woke up that morning. Who he was before he united with Sora was an incomplete being, a shadow of a true cat. Without Sora, he was a nobody. Their hearts were irreversibly connected, and if anything happened to hurt that connection then Dyne would be doomed to live out his life as a meaningless existence. A mere shell.

That was why all cats obeyed their first mates. They feared the spiritual annihilation that would occur if their lovers ever rejected them. Since Dyne had abandoned everything, his world, his people, even some of his customs, all he had left to define himself was Sora. As a result, his fear of an existential existence was tenfold.

"Fine. I'll leave. But just remember when you see Riku that it was MY cock that tanned your ass red and it's MY cum that's spilling out of you even now."

With that, Dyne marched off, leaving a very livid Sora behind.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


By the time Sora arrived to the track field, most of the bleachers were taken. The same spectators that were there to see the soccer game had all walked over to watch the track meet. If there was anything their school didn't lack, it was pride in their athletic teams. It wasn't all that surprising considering that there wasn't much to do on Destiny Islands. A minor sports game was the equivalent of a Super Bowl to the islanders.

Despite the crowd, Sora was able to sit at the very front of the bleachers both by virtue of being part of the soccer team and the fact that Tidus had saved him a seat. As soon as Tidus saw the incredibly bad mood that Sora was in, he scooted off to the side so that there was two feet of space between them.

At Sora's stare, Tidus explained his action in a matter of fact of voice, "Just don't want to get mauled."

Sora didn't even grace him with an answer. He turned back to the field, where the cheerleaders were preparing for their last job of the day. Kairi was staring in his direction, and when their eyes met she took the initiative to walk over to her friend.

"Are you alright? You looked like you were hurting during the game today."

There was no mistaking the note of concern in Kairi's voice. Sora could feel Tidus looking at him, which only made him feel more embarrassed. Everyone was noticing that he was in pain. They didn't know why, but they could see that he did something. "I pulled a hamstring."

"Oh Sora. Wait right there, I have just the thing for you." Kairi left to go converse with Selphie, leaving Sora to deal with Tidus's comments alone.

"A hamstring huh? I knew there had to be something like that going on. You were totally off your game today man. It's not like you Sora."

No, Sora supposed that it wasn't like him at all. At that point, Kairi returned with a bottle of pills in her hand. She offered it to the boy. "Take these, it'll make you feel better."

"What's this?" Sora took the bottle from Kairi and turned it around to read the label.

"Ibuprofen. Only take one every 4 hours and it'll make the pain go away."

"Waiiiiiiit a minute. Is that girl medicine?" Tidus eyed the bottle of pills as if he expected it to come alive and bite Sora's hand.

"Shut up Tidus! You're such a little kid." Kairi glared at the blonde. She hated it when boys treated menstruation like it was something evil. Yes it was painful, annoying and disgusting at times, but nothing defined her as a woman greater than the physical burden she had to bear every month.

Just then, the crowd went up in a cheer, and it was no wonder: Riku was now on the field. Kairi rejoined the other cheerleaders so that they could begin The Riku Routine - a special cheer that had been created for the school's star athlete.

Sora quickly gulped down one of the pills and tried to ignore the way it made his throat burn. He mentally pushed everything Dyne said out of his mind so that he could support Riku, but found it incredibly hard. It was unfair to have to choose between his friendships and his relationships. If only Dyne would understand that he cared about his friends as much as he did for his lover.

Little did Sora know, Dyne understood that perfectly, and found it to be a major problem.

Riku walked to the starting line where he went through the motions of checking his shoes and doing his stretches. He seemed to be entirely self-absorbed in preparations for the run, which was normal for him. No one was aware of the dark storm that had clouded his heart since the heartbreaking discovery he made the day before.

The events that came after the race began were a blur to Riku. The starting whistle cut through the air like a shrill scream and he took off running. The cheerleaders, the other contestants, the people on the bleachers and the track beneath his feet mixed together in a kaleidoscope of color, and he didn't realize that it was because there was a sheen of tears over his eyes. Like a distant dream, the people in the bleachers stood up. He thought he saw Sora standing among them, his eyes wide and face slack with disbelief.

After Riku crossed the finish line, his run deteriorated to a leisurely walk. He didn't stick around to talk to anyone or even acknowledge the crowd, he simply left the field for the locker rooms. There was no reason to run anymore.

The track field was aghast with disbelief. Riku..

Riku had lost.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Once in the locker room, Riku grabbed his duffel bag and slung it over his shoulders. The door to his locker was slammed closed, and when he looked up he found that Sora was standing speechlessly a few feet away.

Riku started to walk in the opposite direction.

"Riku!"

Riku paused in his tracks, back towards his best friend.

Sora didn't know what to say. Riku had never lost at anything in his life. Winning was always so important to him, especially when it came to sports because he was working hard to get a scholarship for college. Sora was afraid to even mention what happened on the track field. "Can I walk you home?"

A lifetime ago, Riku would have been happy to hear the question. He would have hoped like a fool that their walk home had more possibilities and meanings in them than simple companionship. However, now he knew the truth, and it made him feel like he was going to die.

"No." Riku resumed leaving the vicinity. "Go home. That's what you really want."

Never before had the gulf between them seemed so wide and vast. Sora remained riveted to his spot, and wondered what he had done to make his best friend so cold towards him.

Outside, Riku found someone else lying in wait for him. Kairi detached herself from the side of the building, still wearing her cheerleading uniform and a worried expression on her face. Riku didn't say anything to her, instead he walked past her on his way home.

That wasn't enough to deter Kairi. She walked quickly to catch up to him and tried to catch his eyes despite the fact that Riku was determined to look straight ahead. "I couldn't care less about the race. I want to know what's going on with you."

"It's nothing."

"Nothing? Is that all you have to say? You call what happened out there nothing?"

There was no answer on Riku's part. Kairi attempted to latch onto Riku's arm to make him stop walking, but she was rudely shoved away. Such a harsh reaction from her friend stung.

"I guess I'm nothing to you too, huh Riku?" Kairi angrily shoved hair that became tousled from the shove away from her face.

Riku stopped walking and let out a sigh. He really didn't want to deal with this right now. Moreover, if he told Kairi the truth, she would be doomed to feel as rejected and worthless as he did. He wouldn't wish that for any of his friends.

"Kairi." Riku turned to her and placed his palm on her head. "Thank you, but I need to be alone. I don't want to be a jerk, but I am right now and that's why I need to be away."

"You are a jerk." Still, Kairi didn't push Riku's hand away in the same way he had done to her. "It's only because we're friends that I can forgive it just this once. But I won't forgive it twice."

"I'm sorry." Riku dropped his palm back to his side. "It won't happen again, I promise." There was a pause between them as the gravity of that promise sank in. "I have to go. I'll see you later."

"Ok." Kairi folded her arms across her chest as she watched Riku walk off for a little bit. After a few moments she turned to head home herself. There was more going on here than meets the eye, but she couldn't do anything about it while Riku was unwilling to talk. So she let him go, for now.

For the most part, Riku made it home without incident. The only thing that bothered him was a blonde lady that was grinning at him as she leaned up against a nearby telephone pole. Riku glared at her; there was nothing worth smiling like that for. He wasn't sure if there would ever be anything to smile about ever again.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Ibuprofen did wonders that Sora was grateful for. The walk home wasn't too painful, but there were no magic pills that would take care of his loneliness. He wished that he could have spent some time with Kairi, but he couldn't find her after his meeting with Riku. It was just as well; Sora knew that he would not be able to answer Kairi's questions when she realized that there was more going on with him than just pain. Another option was to go sulk on the play island, but he wasn't up to doing all that rowing. In the end, since he didn't want to run into anyone else he knew from school, home was the only resort.

Sora didn't know if it was the medication or not, but as he walked down the road to his house he began to notice things that he never had before. The palm trees seemed taller, his neighbors looked older, and the shoreline looked shorter. There was a certain group of children that was always roughhousing in the playground; cute kids that were no bigger than Sora's knees. Now they were up to his waist, and they played organized games like cops and robbers, or pirate ship.

When did things change so much? Had he been asleep all this time and only now woken up? In the morning when he had taken his shower, he looked down at his hands and wondered when they got so big. He washed his limbs and found that his biceps and thighs had become thick. He rubbed his chest and back and felt how compact the muscles of his torso were for the first time. His hands passed over his pubis and genitals, and he tested the looseness of his foreskin, the girth of his cock, the weight of his balls and the course nest of hair they resided in.

_I don't know who I am anymore._

_Is this really me?_

Even his home had not escaped change. Once, it held a family of three, and then it was only two, and now it was two plus one stranger. Cloud was there in the driveway when Sora arrived, and he gave the boy a friendly wave before returning to whatever he was doing with his car.

The realization of how much things have changed, both outside and within, left Sora in a surreal mood. When he entered his bedroom, it was to find Dyne perched on his windowsill in feline form, where he had most likely waited patiently for his new mate to finally come home.

Sora didn't have the strength to be mad anymore. Somewhere between the harsh words and the walk home, he'd shed his anger and arrived at his doorstep feeling as if he were a detached balloon about to float into oblivion. He knelt down on the floor, emotionally exhausted, and uttered his defeat in a tired voice.

"I don't want to fight anymore."

The cat perched on the window dropped to the floor and languidly went to rub its whiskers across Sora's knees. Sora bent forwards so that he could nuzzle his nose against Dyne's yellow fur, a gesture that was rewarded with a purr. Slowly, Sora turned his body sideways until he was lying on the ground, and his cat dutifully curled up against his chest.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


There are many different types of pain. Some are sudden and consuming, whereas others occur as a sharp prick that quickly goes forgotten despite the damage that had been done. The pain that came from Sora's relationship with Riku was like that; after the initial hurt Sora quickly forgot about it even though the damage it did to his heart was insidious and festering.

Forgetting happened naturally because of the distraction that Dyne had become in Sora's life. It was his first relationship, and even though he was wary about having sex again because of how painful it had been afterwards, he was not averse to exploring the possibilities of romance with his new lover. Holding hands, kissing, petting, cuddling, mouthing, whispering; they became the pearls of their secret relationship and everyday they were polished to a shine.

Sora learned not to take Dyne's insistence on making a family too seriously. For one, it was biologically impossible to have kittens the way that Dyne someday dreamed of them doing. As for being Alpha, he wasn't entirely sure what that meant except that it put him in charge of their family. Sora supposed that he could consider the both of them as a two-person family, and in a way, he kind of liked that.

The only thing unnerving about being the Alpha was Dyne's sudden obedience to everything he said. Sora rarely gave orders unless it was really important, and his mate seemed happy to live that way. There was just one rule that Dyne never wanted to follow, and that was to quit his constant flirting with Kairi. It bothered Sora to see it, even though at the end of the day, he was always assured that Dyne still liked him when he got to crawl into bed with his pet.

Everyone noticed how contented and happy Sora was lately. Kairi wondered if he finally broke through the cloud that had covered him since his father's death, a thought that made her feel very happy for her friend. Riku, on the other hand, couldn't stand to see Sora's bliss, so he was absent from many of their gatherings. He didn't come to the crash site anymore, and he never called.

There was just one other person who knew the truth, and she watched her son prance about the house on cloud nine with growing trepidation. Nessa answered every phone call in hopes of hearing the voice of the female that had stolen her son's innocence. She waited on the porch when Sora came home with a wide smile and sharp eyes to see if she could spy the new girlfriend walking beside him. Everyday, Sora's mom hinted that Sora could bring his friends to dinner anytime he wanted, and that he could talk to her about anything. She didn't know what bothered her more, the fact that Sora was now sexually active or that he wasn't willing to bring this mystery girl to meet his family.

Since Nessa was obviously very bothered by it, Cloud made good on his promise and cornered Sora for The Talk. It happened one Sunday morning when they were both eating breakfast in the kitchen. Sora had sat down to a healthy bowl of Cheerios and bananas, and Dyne was lovingly walking between his legs with his tail hooked over the boy's bare ankles. Cloud sat across from them with a bagel covered in jam and a steaming cup of tea.

"How's school?" It was always best to start nonchalantly. Cloud took a sip of his drink while eyeing Sora over the rim.

"School's great. The Homecoming Dance is tomorrow."

"Are you going to the game?"

"Nah, I stopped going to the football games when Riku quit the team."

Now, to go in for the kill. "I see. Have a date to the dance?"

Sora rolled his eyes at the question. "Yeah, I'm stuck with Selphie. Kairi is going with someone else this year."

"Is Selphie your girlfriend?"

"Ew, no! She's too crazy to be anybody's girlfriend." It was a mean thing to say, but it was true. If Selphie weren't such a nutcase, she would probably get a lot more attention from guys.

Sora's reaction nearly made Cloud raise a brow. If Selphie wasn't Sora's girlfriend, then why was he taking her to the dance? It made Cloud wonder about the virtue of the person that Sora was really with. "Then you haven't dated anyone yet."

"No." Sora's voice came a little more subdued then he intended, and the way he dropped his eyes gave away the lie. Despite all his practice, he still had a ways to go before mastering how to keep his own secrets.

"It's nothing to be ashamed about." Cloud placed his cup of tea on the table so that he could give Sora his full attention. "Whoever she is, your mother would like to meet her."

"But there isn't anybody!" A sharp nip to Sora's toe reminded him that Dyne was listening and did not appreciate not being acknowledged in the house.

"I'm not stupid, and neither is your mother. We know, Sora." When Sora blanched, Cloud knew that he had the kid right where he wanted him. "What worries us most is whether you are using protection."

_Oh god._ If the ground could open up and swallow Sora right then and there then he would be grateful. This was the most embarrassing moment he'd ever had to endure in his entire life. "What do you mean 'us'? What do you care what I do?"

"I care because you're a good kid and I would hate to see that go to waste. I also care that you don't ruin a girl's life because neither of you were careful."

For the next hour and a half - the longest that Sora had ever heard Cloud talk - he was lectured on relationships, sex, alternatives to sex, contraception, pregnancy, the places on the island that he could go to for assistance, STDs, what his mother's health insurance covered; and the heavy price that becoming emotionally involved can do to his grades, his future in college, and his hopes and dreams.

Although some of it didn't apply to Sora since his partner was male, he had no idea that there was so much more involved with sex than what happened in the bedroom. When the speech was finally over, he walked to his room feeling as if he had aged about twenty years in the past two hours. Ultimately, there was only one message that Cloud had been trying to send, and it was one that was very sobering: Adult pleasure comes with adult responsibility. If Sora had known about that beforehand, he might have hesitated more, but now that he had a taste he could never go back. He couldn't see his life ahead of him without intimacy, especially with Dyne sleeping in the same room. Celibacy was now impossible.

"Humans are so complicated." Dyne's voice brought Sora out of his reverie. His pet was perched on the desk in human form. "And they live too long."

"What do you mean?"

Instead of answering Sora, Dyne continued asking questions while he preened his tail. "What is this college thing that surfer boy was talking about?"

"College?" Sora supposed that Dyne got interested in it when he overhead Cloud talking about it. "College, uhm. It's a place that you go to so you can learn lots of stuff. Like, how to be a doctor, or a scientist, or how to be a mechanic or even a detective. All kinds of things."

"It's like a caste system." Dyne's expression melted into wonderment. "Except you aren't born into it, you get to choose."

"Yeah, I guess it's like that." Sora flopped down on the bed and folded his hands behind his head.

"What caste do you want to belong to?"

"I dunno. Maybe I'll be an inventor, or do something where I can build stuff. I always liked making models."

Dyne was very quiet. Then, he left the chair so that he could walk over to the bed and lean over Sora. "I have decided. We will hold off on kittens until you have attended this college. Until then, I will select a second mate for us to bear our litter. That way, neither of our dreams will become lost."

"Dyne, I hate it break it to you but there aren't a lot of humans who are going to want to go out with an alien, much less an alien cat that already has a boyfriend. And don't even get me started on the kittens. Why do you always have to bring up finding someone else anyway? Am I not enough?"

Dyne chuckled as he swatted Sora's face with his tail. "Of course you're enough, that's why you are my First." It was just that in Dyne's opinion and culture, a family wasn't a family unless there was progeny. If they left no legacy then they would die for nothing. For that reason, he was determined to find a second mate that would make their family stronger and bear their kittens for them.

And unlike what Sora thought, Dyne did know someone who just might be open minded enough to give them a try.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


"Kairi! You better be wearing that perfume I bought you - remember, one spritz to the back of the neck, one at the boobs and two at the wrists!"

Sora's house was alive with activity on the night of the homecoming dance. Selphie showed up early wearing a strapless orange dress that came with an uneven skirt that was layered with dangling diamonds. She was pacing Sora's living room with his cell phone pressed to her ear, and every time she turned around the sequins of her dress slapped against the furniture.

In the bedroom, Sora was making sure that Dyne was well dressed for the occasion. They were going to be in the middle of a massive crowd and if anything happened to reveal Dyne's true identity then they were all going to be in trouble. His pet was dressed in a tan sports coat, a pair of gray slacks and vest, and a white shirt. The crowning glory of his outfit was a gray golf cap that Sora tucked over Dyne's cat ears. After finger combing the choppy layers of the catboy's hair down to the nape of his neck and cheeks, Dyne was ready for the night.

"You look so cool." Sora grinned at his lover, who winked back at him.

"I bet Kairi is going to kiss me for sure tonight."

That caused Sora go still for half a second, and then he gave Dyne a skeptical look. "Kairi wouldn't kiss you if you paid her."

"How about you? Would you kiss me if I paid you?"

In answer, Sora leaned forwards so to do just that, but Dyne quickly ducked out of range of Sora's mouth. "Sorry! These lips are Kairi's only.~"

Dyne received a dirty look in turn. Naturally, the catboy was only trying to get a rise out of Sora, but if it turned out that he wasn't kidding then he was going to be in a lot of trouble.

Since Dyne was already dressed, he slipped out of the bedroom; immediately earning a squeal of pleasure from Selphie once she spotted him. While he was pounced by the enthusiastic girl, Sora remained in his room so that he could give himself a final glance in the mirror. His mother lamented that he wouldn't cut his hair for the occasion, but he liked it long and that's the way it was going to stay. Instead, Sora arranged his spikes so that they were more slanted instead of set in the usual triangular pattern. He thought it looked nice, even if he said so himself.

His own attire was a lot more formal than Dyne's. He had a long tuxedo jacket in black that hung to his thighs and tended to flare out when he walked. A burnished orange vest and tie worn over a white shirt was specifically picked to compliment Selphie's dress, and a pair of black slacks finished the ensemble.

There was something about dressing nice for a party that made Sora feel as if he were turning into a prince for a night. Pleased with what he saw, Sora stepped out of his bedroom and was instantly assaulted by camera flashes and his mom's ecstatic cries.

"Honey, you look wonderful!"

"SORA!!!" Selphie instantly attached herself to his arm. "WHEN DID YOU GET SO HOT??? Kairi is going to be SO jealous!"

Dyne didn't say anything, but he was grinning at Sora in a way that made it obvious that he was picturing what it would be like to play with his tie. Specifically, while Sora was wearing only his tie.

"Did someone order a limo?" Cloud happened to peer out of the window in time to see a sleek black limousine pulling up beside the driveway.

"That would be me." Dyne waved his goodbye to everyone in the home before turning to amble out of the front door.

"He's riding a limo?" Sora gaped as he watched Dyne get escorted into the limousine by the driver. He didn't even know that Destiny Islands had a limousine service! "Why doesn't he give us a ride?"

"Because Kairi is getting on that limo and you're not allowed to see her dress until you're at the dance." Selphie grinned knowingly.

"Why?"

"It's a girl thing.~ Anyway, let's get going!"

Kairi must have been paying an arm and a leg for that limousine, because Sora was positive that Dyne was doing absolutely nothing to foot that bill. She had even bought him his outfit and paid his entrance fee. Sora didn't approve of any of it, but of course nobody listened to him when he protested.

After taking a few last minute pictures and saying goodbye to Nessa and Cloud, both Sora and Selphie walked arm in arm towards the school. Once they were out of the house, Sora breathed easier. He convinced his mom that Dyne was a friend from school who was meeting at his place to get dressed, and thankfully Selphie didn't say anything to incriminate them. The hardest part of the night was now over.

The dance was going to take place in the gymnasium, which had been decorated to reflect a "Night in the Clouds" theme. The music pumping over the speakers could be heard a block away, and many people were sitting on their doorsteps to watch the teenagers going to the dance walk past wearing beautiful gowns and elegant tuxedos.

In every party, there were those people who preferred to sit down and watch, those who hogged the refreshment table, those who stood in circles and just talked and those who ditched early to do less than savory things on the beach. Sora's group of friends was always the ones who were cutting up the dance floor.

It started when they were at their first party. Riku was a freshman in high school and he invited Sora to come along for moral support. Back then, they were too nervous to ask anyone to dance with them. However, sometime during that awkward night, Sora exchanged a look with Riku, and in that moment they realized how stupid it was to stand around and be scared. So they threw themselves out there and did whatever.

Although it started off as clowning around, eventually they got pretty good at dancing. The memory of the first attempt, however, was something that they relived at every party, and now that Sora was dancing, he felt Riku's absence like a gaping hole in his chest. He kept scanning the crowd in hopes of spotting him while he danced with Selphie.

Speaking of Riku, there were a lot of girls who were jealous that Rikku from homeroom C-8 got to be his date. Lots of Riku and Rikku jokes were cracked over it, but otherwise the couple took everything in stride. Poor Rikku practically fainted when her date showed up at her house wearing a long, dusky gray tuxedo jacket and slacks coupled with a black turtleneck. Her parents were just as shocked; they nearly didn't let her leave the house when they saw that Riku was so dangerously good looking.

They arrived late to the dance because they had to spend an extra half-hour getting the third degree from Rikku's parents. After that mortification, Rikku suspected that Riku was never going to ask her out again, and she was absolutely right. If there was anything that Riku hated, it was when people judged him before getting to know him. She couldn't apologize to him enough, especially when she saw what a dark mood her date seemed to be in.

Little did she know, Riku's distance wasn't just because of what happened at her house, although that incident didn't help. It was the fact that Sora was on his mind, and he wasn't looking forwards to seeing him at the dance. He didn't think that he was going to be able to enjoy himself there because of how he still felt. Despite that though, once Riku arrived he couldn't help but scan the crowd for his best friend.

They met each other's eyes, and Riku could tell by the way that Sora's searching expression collapsed into an instant grin that he had been looking for him too. Sora began waving wildly for his friend to join him on the dance floor. At first, Riku hesitated, which made Sora frown and insist even more. He scisssored two fingers across his eyes and sashayed like John Travolta from Pulp Fiction to convince Riku.

Despite himself, the corners of Riku's lips began to quirk into a smile. Sora always had to do that dance at least once in every party. They had perfected it together just because it gave them so many laughs. Riku found himself leading his date to the dance floor, and his smile grew wider as Sora stalked around him doing the Pulp Fiction routine with Selphie.

For all that Riku had been hurt, having Sora's attention on him now helped to uplift him. And.. as much as their future wasn't going to be what he hoped that it could be, they had a past of beautiful memories, and those memories had the power to heal. So Riku turned to his date and told her that it was time that she learned a new dance.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


"What the hell is Sora doing?"

Part of the gymnasium was partitioned off with a white curtain, and behind it were the people who had won the homecoming race. Dyne wasn't really supposed to be back there, but since Kairi was the homecoming princess for her grade then he was going to do his best to support her. Besides, she was the only non-Turk among the other princesses, so she had to deal with a dangerous crowd.

Kairi let out a nervous giggle at Dyne's question. They were both peeking past the curtain at the goings on at the dance floor. "That's the Pulp Fiction dance. You have to watch the movie to understand it."

Poor Kairi felt as if there were a thousand butterflies in her stomach. Tonight was the night. Everything she had been working for was going to culminate within the next half-hour. Her hands were shaking and her heart was beating a mile a minute.

Dyne couldn't understand her nervousness. To him, she was the most beautiful girl in the entire island, both in body and in heart. For Sora not to see that he would have to be completely blind and retarded. If he didn't at least pop a boner when he saw Kairi tonight then Dyne was going to resign himself to the fact that Sora was completely gay. Since that was going to make finding a second mate for them a lot harder, he was praying that Kairi was going to appeal to his mate.

"The underclassmen are making themselves look stupid as usual." Elena was eavesdropping on Kairi's and Dyne's conversation. She had been watching them like a hawk ever since they came to the homecoming dance together, just waiting for a chance to humiliate them. Needless to say, she was angry over the fact that Dyne opted to be Kairi's date, even though technically every princess already had dates in the form of the princes that had also won the homecoming race. The prince of Kairi's class, another Turk, was left to walk to the dance while Dyne and Kairi rode the limousine. It was a sign of how much power they thought they had over the school to be able to stub a Turk so blatantly.

Elena had to settle for second best, and that turned out to be Rufus Shinra. He was her date and a homecoming prince, but no one seemed to care about that. It was clear that the most popular person in school right now was Dyne, a fact that Rufus witnessed for himself upon seeing people's reactions when they saw Dyne and Kairi arrive to the school. The both of them were treated like celebrities wherever they went.

"At least they've having fun instead of standing around like an overstuffed peacock." Kairi swept her eyes over Elena's overdone gown and gave it a derisive look.

Before Elena could say anything else, Rufus picked up a cup of fruit punch from a nearby refreshment table and offered it to her. "Don't sink yourself to their levels, Elena. Be a good girl and drink your punch."

There was more to that exchange than what met the eye. Elena seemed to understand, and so she took the fruit punch and approached Kairi with a smile on her face. "Rufus is absolutely right, I shouldn't be so childish. It's these high heels, they hurt my feet and make it so hard to walk -"

Everything happened quickly. Elena's cup tilted as she prepared to throw it at Kairi, and Dyne noticed in time to pull Kairi off to the side before punch was thrown all over her dress. The liquid fell harmlessly to the floor instead.

For a few tense moments, both parties stared at each other. The fact that Elena tried to do such a thing purposely was shocking, but to Dyne it was more than that - it was downright disgusting. Kairi had worked so hard, too hard to have her night nearly ruined. The anger was clear on his face as he clung to Kairi's waist.

Then the unthinkable happened. Elena suddenly fell face forwards into the puddle with a scream.

Rufus's eyes went wide. _How the hell?_ An accusing glare was sent searing towards Dyne and Kairi, the former who simply glared back; the latter who was just as shocked as Elena. Without another word, Dyne escorted Kairi away before anyone else attempted something stupid.

"Dyne," whispered Kairi, "you shouldn't have used your tail like that. She might have seen it!"

"Fuck her. People will just think she's crazy anyway."

Elena was left hyperventilating over the fact that her dress was now covered in red punch. Rufus handed her a useless handkerchief, all while eyeing the retreating backs of Dyne and Kairi. "How did he do that?"

"It was a rope! He used a rope to pull me down I swear to god!"

Normally, Rufus would have smacked some sense into Elena, but what happened here was too strange to ignore. Both of Dyne's hands were on Kairi's waist when everything went down. Coupled with what Reno tried to tell him..

No. There were no such things as aliens.

But he'd read enough textbooks to know that freaks did exist in this world.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


When it was time to present the homecoming court, everyone gathered in a semicircle around the white curtains. By then, Sora suspected that Kairi had won since she had been missing from the dance for some time, and he was eager to cheer her on now that her dream had finally come true. It seemed like forever since that day when they watched the meteor shower in the sky together.

Riku stood next to Sora and Selphie with his date, relaxed despite his mixed feelings for this part of the dance. He knew why Kairi had worked so hard, but in the end she had worked for nothing. Dyne had snatched both their hopes away; he only prayed that when Kairi found out that she wouldn't take it too hard.

Starting with the freshmen and working up to the seniors, the homecoming court was presented to the crowd. They came out arm in arm and smiling, and the people gathered cheered them on with loud clapping, catcalls and whistles.

When Kairi came out with her date, the crowd went wild. As the only non-Turk to make it into the court, she was an inspiration for every person that was ever made to feel unimportant or was tormented by the popular kids. Selphie cheered at the top of her lungs, and Tidus was waved his fedora hat as if he were at a rodeo.

Riku and Sora didn't say a thing. They were both slack jawed and wide eyed at the vision that just stepped out from behind the curtain. Kairi was dressed in a magnificent white evening gown that flared out at the hips and stopped just shy of dragging against the floor. The front of the skirt was transparent and crafted with pink gossamer material. Although Kairi may not have been very impressive in the breast department, her long legs - complete with a pair of strappy high heels - were a dream unto themselves. A smudge of pink was on her lips and her blue-violet eyes were enhanced with clear mascara. Her hair fell to her shoulders in waves, half of it gathered up into a flowering bun surrounded by a corona of glittering diamonds. The dress hung from her shoulders by two straps and had a square, modest neckline, and a pair of elbow length gloves completed the outfit.

She was stunning. Boys stared at her as she danced with the homecoming prince of her class. No one expected a tomboy to look so good. Even when Elena came out with her stained dress, the focus of the crowd was on Kairi and whom she was going to pick to dance with after the first song was over.

When that time came, the homecoming court broke apart so that they could pull people from the crowd to dance with. The theme song of the night, Passion, began to thrum from the speakers and set the mood. Kairi met Sora's eyes in the crowd, and she lifted her hand to him in silent beckoning.

It was amusing the way Sora walked to Kairi like he was memorized. He lifted his hands to place on her body, and they hovered over her for a few indecisive seconds as if he couldn't figure out where they were supposed to go. In the end, he gave her a beatific smile and finally embraced Kairi in a tight hug.

"I'm so proud of you," Sora whispered. When he leaned away, his blue eyes danced to take all of her in, from the glittering earrings to the slenderness of her neck to the heart shape of her face. For the first time, he was noticing that his Kairi had been a beautiful creature all along. He couldn't help but finger a curl of red hair that fell over her bare shoulder. "How did your hair grow so long?"

Kairi laughed, and then placed her hands around the boy's neck. Everyone else was dancing, and they were just standing around because Sora was so shocked. "They're extensions."

"It's not real?" Sora finally lowered his hands to Kairi's waist and began shifting to music that he really didn't hear. "But you'll grow it this way for real, right?"

"I'll make it real."

The new few seconds were spent dancing in silence while they looked into each other's eyes. Sora would never be able to say what spell had him that night, but he truly felt absolutely enchanted in this moment. "You're really beautiful."

"It's about time you noticed." Kairi lowered her eyes shyly. "I tried to look my best today, because I hoped.. that when we danced to this song.." She drew her gaze back to his. "That you would kiss me."

Realization made Sora's eyes grow wide and bright. Now he finally understood what all these changes were about. Kairi wasn't becoming a new person just for herself, she was doing it for Sora too. All this time, he secretly resented the way she started to care about girly things and stopped being the tomboy that he grew up with and cared for. He thought he was being left behind with everything else that she cast off from her past. However, in the end, she had been keeping him well within her heart the entire time.

It would have been incredibly easy to make the shift in their close friendship to being boyfriend and girlfriend. He could already see the happy dates ahead of them, where they would to the go movies and carnivals and walk along the beach. He saw them kissing under palm trees and walking with just their pinky fingers linked. He could see how comfortable and natural they would progress to intimacy, because it was Kairi and she loved him, and he had no doubt in his heart that he loved her too.

Their feelings weren't romantic, platonic or even familial. What they had began as the very simple and clean love that only children knew to give; unconditional, pure and enduring, and everlasting through the years. As they grew up, it lost all its purity and became complicated by their experiences and the world they lived in, but it was always, always enduring.

They could never go back to how simple things were when they were children; that innocence had been traded away for passion. However, Sora was starting to understand that passion wasn't a bad thing. It made people do incredible things for the one they cared for. Kairi turned himself from a tomboy to a princess, and he knew this was only an inkling of how far she would go for him because she cared.

So Sora smiled warmly, happily, and returned that unspoken promise to her with a kiss. _Me too. I will do more than be there for you. I'll be your strength._ Her lips were pliant and they tasted fruity. When his tongue slipped into her mouth, he was surprised that she was soft rather than raspy, and that her taste was totally unexpected and different.

When Sora ended the kiss with a tender brush of his lips to Kairi's, he realized that the future of carnivals and beaches and handholding and intimacy were never going to happen, because he was already doing Dyne.

He wasn't sure how he felt about that.

Kairi's cheeks were burning a deep red. The song had changed to something that was more upbeat, but neither of them was moving anymore. Sora was waiting for a reaction, and it was with a bit of egotism that he wanted Kairi to say that he was a really good kisser. Since she had asked for one, he gave her one of his best.

"Sora," Kairi pursed her trembling lips. "Thank you."

Before Sora could say anything, Kairi began to walk away. Surprised by this strange reaction, he went to follow her, but could not get further than a step because Selphie chose that moment to tackle him.

"I SAW IT. I SAW IT YOU ROMEO!!!!"

"Selphie!" Sora tried to pry Selphie off so that he could go after Kairi. "Let me talk to Kairi, I'll dance with you later."

"You can't go after her! This is the damsel's exit! She was so overwhelmed that she needed air. Let her compose herself with dignity you horndog!"

"Oh." Sora didn't know whether to be flattered by that or not. He continued to look at Kairi as she stiffly walked away, and hoped that she was ok.

Then he realized that he'd just kissed someone other than his boyfriend, mate, whatever - he honestly still didn't know - and his face completely blanched.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Riku couldn't believe what he'd just seen. Sora totally dived in on Kairi without a second thought. Which meant..

Which meant that they might actually still have a chance.

Riku never thought that he would be happy to see his best friend kissing someone else. At least it was Kairi. Damn straight it was Kairi. Dyne had only been around for a few months, but Kairi was there for a lifetime. No matter what acrobatic things they did in the bedroom, Dyne couldn't trump a friendship of that magnitude. How could Riku have doubted that?

Kairi was heading in his direction. Riku grinned cheekily at her, so proud and so happy, but the expression vanished when Kairi didn't return it. Instead, she grabbed his coat.

"I need to talk to you."

"Now?" Riku had been in the middle of dancing with the Homecoming Queen. The girl in the arms, Usagi Tsukino, looked rather surprised and annoyed.

"Please."

Riku supposed it couldn't be helped. He apologized to his dance partner and excused himself. At first, Usagi was upset, but upon seeing the prom king, Mamorou, walk by without a dance partner she was instantly cheered and went after him.

Kairi didn't stop walking until they were completely outside of the gymnasium. Once they were out of the public eye, she turned around and buried her face in Riku's vest. Both of her hands clutched tightly at the lapels of his coat as she began to cry.

"Kairi?" Alarmed, Riku tried to comfort her by petting her back and pushing hair from her eyes. "What happened?"

"Where," Kairi murmured through soft sobs, "where did he learn to kiss like that?"

There it was. Kairi knew. Riku's heart skipped a beat, and then his eyes narrowed when he realized that there was something else that Kairi was trying to say. "It wasn't me." He placed his palms on her shoulders in hopes of getting her to look at him and know he was telling the truth. "I swear to you I never did anything like that with him."

"Then who?" Who taught Sora to kiss like that? Who? Kairi thought that she would be his first. She imagined their first kiss to be sloppy and unpracticed, because Sora was Sora and he didn't know the first thing about girls. Who was the one that stole his kisses? "You know don't you? You knew all along!"

Riku closed his eyes. How was he going to handle this? "Of course I didn't tell you." His eyes reopened when a course of action finally came to his mind. "If I did, you would have called everything off. You would have never gotten the courage to do what you did tonight, and look. Where was the other person when he kissed you huh? If you ask me, it doesn't matter who it was, because it's obvious that they didn't stand a chance against you today."

Honestly, Riku just wanted Kairi not to be hurt. Still, even though what he said had been made up on the spot, his words did hold a grain of truth to them.

After a few moments, Kairi stopped crying. "I'll never be.. the kind of girl that fights over a guy. You know that."

"Not even if it's Sora?"

A sad smile creased Kairi's lips. "All I could do was tell him how I felt. Anything after that is up to him. That was my plan from the beginning and I'm sticking to it."

Riku was disappointed. If Kairi dressed up every day, flirted with Sora and maybe was a little more aggressive with her advances, then maybe she could peel that boy away from Dyne. "If it were me, I'd fight until he was mine."

"But you shouldn't have to, you know? Things should just flow together."

"Of course. After you make sure it does."

"Riku, you're impossible." Kairi could only shake her head. Riku just had to be competitive in absolutely everything that he did. "I better fix my makeup before anyone notices."

"You won't be needing that stuff anymore. No one is going to forget the way you looked tonight."

Kairi smiled happily at Riku.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Meanwhile, behind the white curtain.

Dyne had been watching the dance floor with bated breath. When Sora leaned in to kiss Kairi, he couldn't keep his tail from curling above his head with pleasure, and then going straight with delight.

"YES!!!!! YES!!!!!!"

CONTACT. Look at that bastard go, Sora was even showing her that thing he did with his tongue! _Yes._ Already, Dyne was mentally creating the timeline they would follow. First, he would have to convince both Sora and Kairi that a non-monogamous relationship was better than following the silly rules that humans have invented for themselves. He could start sleeping with Kairi in secret, and during their intimate moments start talking about Sora to put ideas into her head. In the meantime, he could do the same thing with Sora, until one day he could conveniently lock them both into a room while he was going through his next Estrus. If all went well, they could have their second mate by next year!

After that, it would be smooth sailing. Sora or himself could get Kairi pregnant after they find a proper caste using this 'college', and then they could settle down in a nice house in the middle of the desert instead of islands surrounded by hideous water.

Dyne was looking forwards to licking Kairi's taste off Sora's lips when they went to bed tonight. Sora and Kairi looked so handsome together, and that made him hot. Hopefully Sora was prepared, because once they were alone Dyne was going to pleasure him thoroughly.

"A kink in the tail means a kink in the mind. You naughty Jumi.~"

_No._ Dyne hadn't heard the language of his people since he left Katina. He whirled around and found himself face to face with something that had been lurking in his deepest of fears: Someone from Katina. "Larxene!"

"You must have gotten as soft as kitten's fuzz not to notice me here. Though I have to admit, we were stalled from finding you since you gave that human your missiles. I followed him for many cycles before I was led here and was finally able to track you."

Larxene gave Dyne a feral smile. She was standing a few feet away from him with both arms folded over her chest. In humanoid form, she appeared as a woman with straight blonde hair that fell just to the top of her shoulders. Her most distinctive features were her angular face and the two thick falls of bangs that hung over her forehead like antennas. She was dressed in her cloak and chain mail, and the stylized pattern on her left lapel marked her as guarding the Rajah's son.

"I'm not going back." Dyne slid into a battle stance, tail high and ears flattened against his head. "You'll have to kill me first!"

"Please, don't get your tail fuzzed. I did not come to fight, I came to give you an ultimatum. In our reconnaissance of this planet and your most recent activities, it has been discovered that you are quite fond of these humans. If you don't surrender yourself to us in 5 cycles, we will kill them all. So please come to us peacefully so that they can be spared."

_That monster._ Dyne's fists clenched so hard that they began to shake. "Is he crazy? He'll start an interstellar war! We aren't to tamper with virgin planets! And besides that, I'm already -"

"Don't bother. Everyone has tried to explain it to the Rajah's son already. It's useless. He won't rest until you are back where you belong. This isn't your home, Katina is. Get it through your thick head you crooked tailed kitling. End this farce and be a cat like the rest of your clansmen before you! You are an utter disgrace." The more Larxene spoke, the more her fanged canines made themselves obvious. Her speech gained an animalistic edge with her anger. "Five cycles only. You know how to find us."

With that, Larxene morphed into her feline form: A lithe white cat with a tan smudge on its nose and two falls of fur over blue eyes. She sprinted away with tail held high.

How could Dyne have been so foolish. Larxene was right, he'd gotten incredibly soft not to realize that his people probably landed on this planet a while ago. The adult cats were so much better at shape shifting than he was. They could walk among humans without disguises because they could morph away their ears and tails. Even Larxene had the ability to shift forms without shedding her clothing.

He actually hoped that Axel would give up on him and move on. How could he forget that the Rajah's son was a disgusting pile of dung that had nothing better to do than scratch himself and kill things. How could he..

How could he think that it wasn't going to come to this in the end.

Five cycles. That meant only a few human days. What was he going to do?

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


_Snick._

After weeks of stalking the blonde, Reno finally had what he was looking for. No, more than that. He'd stumbled upon the discovery of the millennia.

The proof was in the videocassette tape. Reno smiled viscously as he cradled the video camera in his hands. Now finally, finally, Rufus would believe him. He could become a Turk again and rain hell on the entire school for thinking they could make a fool of him.

But before that, all of his wrath would fall on Dyne first. Carefully, Reno placed his camera into his backpack and began to crawl away.

Dyne never noticed the dark figure creeping beneath the bleachers.  
  
  
  
**To be continued.**  
  
  



	11. Chapter Eleven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Author** : Cold Silence  
>  **E-Mail** : writer.coldsilence@gmail.com  
>  **Pairings** : Riku + Kairi + Sora, Sora x BHK. (BHK = Blonde Headed Kid from KH II)  
>  **Warnings** : AU, Yaoi, Het, Furs, Dubious Consent. OOC Roxas due to the fandom personality he was given before information on his character was released with KH2.  
>  **Webpage** : https://coldsilence.tumblr.com/post/433113072/index
> 
> **Special Note** : This fic has relationships with things that have tails. Also, this story was started before Roxas's name was revealed, hence why he is named differently in this fic. Don't worry though, this actually fits well with what I have planned for him in the end.  
>   
>   
> 

**Fuzzy Love**  
- _Chapter Eleven_ -  
  


The rest of homecoming night was very awkward. Naturally, Kairi stayed close to Sora and tested the new boundaries of their relationship with shy smiles and lingering touches. Riku took every opportunity to tease his best friend over what was sure to go down in history as the most infamous kiss in all of their high school history, and Dyne was distant and cold over the fact that everyone was now in danger and it was all his fault. Poor Sora thought that Dyne's most recent change in attitude was because he kissed Kairi, and when they got home he was sure that he was going to catch hell for it.

Everyone got to ride the limousine back to their houses. Tidus, his date Yuna, and Selphie were dropped off first, and then so was Rikku (whose parents were waiting anxiously on the front porch). Riku was the next to go with a knowing grin and a noogie for Sora, and then Kairi was bidden farewell with a kiss to her cheek and a long hug. That left Sora and Dyne alone for the last of the ride, and the silence that stretched between them was deafening. Sora was dying to speak to his lover about what happened, but held himself back in case the limousine driver overheard.

As soon as they arrived home and the limousine had driven away, Sora tried to explain himself in a hushed whisper. "Dyne.."

"Sssh," interrupted the catboy. "Get into the house, now." Dyne didn't spare a glance for Sora, instead he scanned the perimeter of their home with sharp eyes for intruders.

Sora misunderstood the reason for such a sharp order, and he kicked the ground in frustration before trudging inside of his home. As always, his mom and Cloud were asleep and oblivious to the drama that was going on his life. For the first time, Sora found himself resenting that the adults weren't there to prevent him from doing stupid things like they were supposed to.

Once in his room, Sora took off his shoes, removed his vest and slung his coat on the desk. A shifty eyed Dyne joined a few moments later, likewise shedding most of his outer clothing before hopping up on the bed and pulling down the curtains of the window. The slats were pivoted just a tiny bit so that he could still peer out into the moonlit backyard.

Sora nervously hung back from sitting on the bed, and then tried to explain himself again. "I couldn't help it. Kairi's been my friend ever since I was a baby. She asked me to kiss her and I didn't think twice about it. I just care about her so much."

One of Dyne's cat ears tilted towards Sora, and finally he turned away from the window to look in the boy's direction. "Kairi's perfect."

"What do you mean?"

"She is the perfect second mate. I choose her for us. She will be the mother of our kittens."

Sora gaped. He couldn't believe that Dyne couldn't care less about the kissing. Worse than that, apparently his mate was making plans to include his friend in the illicit love affair they were involved in. The thought of Kairi bearing anybody's kittens nearly drove Sora crazy. "Okay look. You don't seem to understand this, so I am going to explain it again. Humans don't pair in threes or fours or fives or whatever. it's only two by two. We can only love one person at a time."

"Are you saying you don't love me?"

Sora opened his mouth to respond, but in the end he could only slump his shoulders. He couldn't say no, because he honestly didn't know if he was in love with Dyne. He also couldn't say yes, because it was too cruel.

Despite the implications of Sora's silence, Dyne's expression didn't change. It remained carefully neutral as he continued to watch the backyard. "In Katina, we don't have time to worry about who loves who. Cats usually don't live past 25 of your human years. Our families would whittle down to nothing if we waited for 'the one.' Based on your calendar, I calculate that I only have ten human years left to live before I am killed by another cat. Maybe sooner if I make a mistake. I don't care if you think it's wrong, I'll take what I can because this is all that I'm getting. You're so lucky, Sora. You can go on and wait, but my summer vacation is almost over."

Sora knew it was true. Nearly all of the pieces to the ship were found. Dyne's time on Destiny Islands was coming to an end. The thought of him leaving caused a heavy weight in Sora's heart, but it was the fact that his pet would be so lonely while he was out there on his own that hurt the most. Maybe there were other worlds out there that could give Dyne what he wanted, but there would always be a part of Sora that wished that he had enough love to give to make his lover feel complete. So complete, that he wouldn't need anyone else to be happy.

The mattress dipped under Sora's weight, and then a pair of arms wrapped around Dyne in a tight hug. Sora's voice brushed warmly against the hair near his neck. "I am your family." Dyne closed his eyes, even as Sora began pressing patient kisses to his shoulder. Eventually, he was coaxed into tilting his head to receive some of those kisses on his lips.

Making love to Sora without the heat of the Estrus to fuel them was very different. Their minds were clear enough to make every touch deliberate and filled with intention to transfer affection and pleasure. Dyne never knew until that night that Sora could be so gentle and caring. That he would take the time to melt him with kisses and petting, or whisper sweet nothings while he penetrated him deeply. Wave after wave of pleasure made Dyne's toes and tail curl, and when he was sated, Sora kissed him goodnight and let him sleep on his chest.

It was unfair. Dyne wanted to keep this. He was the luckiest cat in the universe because he had a Sora in his life. Now, all he could do was cry into his sleeping lover's chest, because this was one of the last times they would ever be together like this again.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


The next day, Sora woke up to find the familiar weight of his pet missing. With a small frown, he opened his eyes and peeked around the bed for his lover. He found Dyne sitting on the windowsill above his bed, looking outside just as he had the night before. With a small smile, Sora reached over and gently tugged on the catboy's tail to get him to return to bed.

Dyne's surveillance ended when Sora insisted that he return to cuddling. He obliged the boy by sliding off the windowsill and scooting closer, and was immediately enveloped in a morning hug. Normally, he would have smiled and purred, but that didn't happen today. "Sora, I have an important favor to ask you."

"Mmm." Sora nuzzled against Dyne's cheek. "You want to do it again before my mom wakes up?" He asked playfully, although the way he was rubbing his legs against the other's said that he might actually be able to deliver on that.

"No." At Sora's pout, Dyne couldn't help but feel sorry for himself. "My name was given to me by my clan. it's not my real name, it was one that I was forced to take. I want a new name that reflects the life I have with you."

"You want me to give you a new name?" Sora thought that was an odd request. "I guess I can think of one, but it'll be hard to explain to everybody why you're not called Dyne anymore."

"That doesn't matter." Dyne lightly traced the places on Sora's throat that he nipped the night before. By now, the marks had faded, and he wondered if the impression he left on his mate's life would vanish in the same way. 

"Are you ok? You've been different since yesterday." Sora gave his pet a worried look. "Did I do it wrong last night?"

Dyne couldn't help but chuckle. "No, you were great. Not as great as when I do it of course, but close enough."

"You're way too rough when you're inside me, it feels like a jackhammer."

"You whine too much."

"So?" Sora thought that Dyne would whine too if he were being fucked at a hundred miles per hour. It was like his lover's hips were spring loaded or something. Since this sex talk wasn't getting them anywhere, Sora changed the subject. "Mom wants me to stay home and help her clean the house. How about you come over and visit?"

"You want me to clean?"

"You live here too! The least you can do is get your cat juice off my blankets before mom sees it."

"If you would just learn to swallow it then we wouldn't have this problem."

Sora was totally grossed out by that suggestion; enough that he pushed Dyne away and began sitting up. "You're impossible!"

"If you can eat sea salt ice cream then you can swallow my cum. Come on Sora, try it out.~" Dyne reached for his cock and waved it at Sora, but the boy ignored it in favor of going into the bathroom to take a shower. It was a shame, because Dyne really liked Sora's blowjobs. His bumpy tongue was very nice.

Cleaning was not on Dyne's list of favorite things to do, but he did it anyway because he had to make sure that Sora stayed happy and unsuspicious of the things that were going on. If the boy knew that Katinans were already on planet Earth, then he might do something stupid like tell Riku. The last thing Dyne needed was to have a bunch of gung-ho earthlings try to take on the trained warriors of Katina. So, despite his reluctance, Dyne threw on some clothes, walked around the front of the house and knocking on the door as if he was visiting.

Sora's mom was more than happy to employ Dyne's help. When Nessa cleaned the house, she cleaned the ENTIRE house. Not a nook or cranny was to be left with a speck of dirt, and the outdoor garden had to be pruned and replanted. It was a lot of hard work, but at least Dyne knew that Sora had to stay in or near the house because of it. There was no telling what the Katinans would do if they got their hands on his mate.

Unfortunately, while Dyne was vacuuming the living room rug, he didn't notice Nessa giving Sora some money and telling him to go to the marketplace to buy some flowers to transplant into the garden.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


The marketplace was located along the shore of the beach. The locals set up their stands on the sand and sold everything from wooden tikis, to beads, to t-shirts, to good luck charms, and of course, tropical flowers. Sora gathered the usual bamboo, bleeding hearts, lady's slippers and pansies that his mother loved and paid for them with the money he was given. The vendor was nice enough to put everything into a basket for the boy to carry, and with murmured thanks, Sora left to return home.

Unfortunately, he hadn't been walking too long before a shadow fell over him. Sora looked up to find a strange person in a black cloak towering over him. Upon getting the boy's attention, the man smiled, revealing a row of gleaming white teeth.

"Nice flowers."

"Thanks," answered Sora. He was fascinated by this guy's strange appearance. Although there were plenty of redheads on Destiny Islands, no one ever managed to wear their hair like a wild mane. Also, nobody would be crazy enough to put tear shaped tattoos on their face. Sora couldn't decide if this person was trying to give the impression of a clown or perpetual sadness.

"Name's Axel." Axel effortlessly snatched the basket out of Sora's hands. "Commit it to memory."

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


The high school was completely empty. Only the kids who were on sports teams ever hung around school property over the weekend, but none of them would ever come into the student lounge room. It was the perfect gathering place for some of the most powerful Turks on campus. Rufus, Tseng, Reeve, Elena, Rude and Reno were sitting around a big screen television and staring avidly.

Reno had done more than merely videotape the homecoming dance. He had footage of Dyne morphing from human to cat before he entered the house with Sora, as well as video of the gatherings at the crash site. When all was said and done, Elena had to stand up and wobble over to the window before she threw up. She had actually been lusting for that.. that thing.

The remaining boys in the room couldn't do anything more than stare at the now blank television screen. It was disturbing and frightening that such things existed in the world. This was beyond anything they or any other human being ever experienced in their lifetime.

"Scary shit, isn't it." Reno commented. He hoped his former Turks felt like crap for what they did to him.

"What do we do Rufus?" Tseng turned to their leader for answers.

"The fuck are we supposed to do, it's an alien," muttered Reeve, shock still evident in his voice.

"An alien that is going to be president of the student council if we don't do something about this," answered Tseng with an angry edge.

"Reeve is right. We have to be careful about this. If we anger it, there's no telling what will happen to us," broke in Rufus smoothly. His father had trained him to face many political challenges, but nothing held a candle to this. In a twisted way, it excited him that this kind of obstacle existed. Nothing would test his manipulating prowess better than this.

"We don't have to be afraid of this guy," Reno cut in with a superior look. "The only thing special about him is his ears and his tail. Other than that, he's just another dumbass ripe for the picking. The fool can't even swim."

"That other one he was with didn't look like any chump," pointed out Reeve. He was referring to the female alien that had approached Dyne at the homecoming dance. "We're not dealing with just one of them."

"But there's only one that immediately concerns us." Rufus stood up. Already, he had a solution in mind, and it was with single-minded determination that he retrieved his cell phone and began dialing a number.

"Are you calling the government?" Asked Tseng.

"Better." Rufus waited while the line rang, and then spoke when someone picked up. "I would like to speak to Professor Hojo. This is his nephew, Rufus Shinra." While he was put on hold, Rufus addressed Reno. "By the way, Turks don't dress like crap."

The grin on Reno's face was wide and dangerous.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Dyne wiped his brow after turning off the vacuum. Not only had he cleaned the living room, but he also did the kitchen, the bedrooms, the guestroom, and used the attachments to dust every single last inch of the house. Sora's mother was a slave driver when it came to cleaning.

"Sora," called Dyne. He was done with this whole cleaning business. As soon as he found his mate, he was going to give him a lick on the lips and then change into his feline form, whereupon he would steadfastly remain as a cat until all the chores were done. Dyne waited for an answering call, and when none came, he frowned and began searching through the rooms of the house. "Sora!"

Nessa poked her head out from the guestroom. "Dyne, I sent Sora to the marketplace get some flowers. He should be back soon."

"You sent Sora outside?!" The fuzz on Dyne's tail stood on end. Without another word, he turned and ran out of the house at lightening speed. The front door was slammed open and left to hang that way while he sprinted out to the road, leaving a bewildered Nessa behind.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Sora found himself in a very odd situation. The newly met "Axel" stole his flowers and walked off with them, forcing the boy to doggedly follow the stranger and yell at his back. Axel did not stop until they made it to an isolated picnic table under the trees, where he told Sora to sit down if he wanted his basket back.

Angrily, Sora sat down at the table and Axel sat across from him with a grin. For the next half-hour, the stranger began questioning Sora about random things, like what was his favorite food and what kind of soap he used when showering. The entire ordeal weirded Sora out, until he realized that the thief must be flirting with him. Aside from Dyne, Sora had never been the center of attention from anyone, much less another boy. It made him wonder if sleeping with a male somehow made him more attractive to other boys.

Still, Sora wasn't fooled. Whether this stranger really liked him or lot, he could plainly see that Axel was just another bully. "Look, my mom is expecting me home so I really have to go. I have other things that I need to do today." Sora reached for the basket, but the redheaded man rudely smacked his hand away.

"I can't believe you're such a," beneath the table, Axel prodded Sora's thigh with his foot. The boy practically jumped a mile high in response, "nervous little mama's boy. If you weren't so cute, there'd be no merit in fucking you."

Sora flushed a deep red. "That's it. I'm not dealing with this anymore. Keep the stupid flowers." The boy stood up, and then added angrily, "And for your information, I already have someone, so you have no chance!"

Axel's green eyes narrowed to slits. "You're that whipped?" The basket of flowers that he had been hoarding was suddenly thrown at Sora's face. The boy barely managed to catch it in time. "I don't know why anyone would want someone as soft and breakable as you. I bet you bleed easy."

"SORA!"

Sora was relieved to hear Dyne's voice. He turned to look down the road and spied his pet running towards him at top speed. Then he glanced back at the table, only to find that Axel was gone. Amazed that someone could disappear that fast, Sora scanned the immediate area with disbelief.

"Sora," gasped Dyne when he was finally close enough to grab his mate's arm. "How dare you leave the house like that without telling me!"

"What's with you? I can leave the house whenever I want." Geez, there was no end to the bad attitudes that Sora had to deal with today.

Suddenly, Dyne leaned over Sora and began sniffing the air around him. Then he began looking at their whereabouts with fingers flexed as if he were ready to claw something. "His smell is all over you!"

Sora came to an erroneous conclusion about Dyne's strange behavior. He believed that his pet chased him out here thinking that he was cheating on him with someone else. Dyne's jealousy was going to be the death of him! "It's not like that. My mom sent me to buy flowers," Sora lifted the basket and waved it at Dyne's face so that he could see the proof, "and some weirdo came and stole them from me. I followed him all the way out here, and then I got my flowers back." He prudently left out the contents of the conversation that Axel had with him.

However, Dyne didn't buy it. He began dragging Sora back to the house. "He had his dirty paws on you didn't he! I'll rip his ears off!"

That sounded really unpleasant. Sora glanced back at the place where he had been sitting with Axel, and swore he saw a pair of brilliant green eyes staring back from beneath the brush.

When they arrived at the house, they spent the rest of the day finishing the cleaning. As soon as they were done, Dyne pretended to leave the house and then waited for Sora in his room. When his mate joined him, Dyne locked the door, stripped Sora of his clothes and pinned him to the bed so that he could thoroughly lick Axel's smell off him. Needless to say, Sora was an unwilling participant in this bathing until Dyne sucked his cock and made him go limp with orgasm.

Sora didn't like this jealous, almost desperate side of Dyne. He didn't think it was fair or moral to have sexual favors used against him like that. In the end though, he chose not to complain. Their time together was limited, and this was probably the only way that his lover could deal with the pain of separation. So Sora let Dyne take him any way he wanted that night, and wondered if other couples gave their bodies solely for comfort too.

The next morning, Sora woke up around 5:00 am. Despite how tired he was after all that cleaning and sex, he was too anxious to keep sleeping. Today, they were going to the crash site to finalize the assembly of Dyne's ship. All the pieces had been located, and now the only thing keeping his lover on planet Earth was an arbitrary date that was yet to be set.

Sora kissed Dyne until he was willing to let go and cuddle the warm spot he was lying on instead of his body. Then he left to take a warm shower and dress into a pair of clean pajamas. Afterwards, he had all intentions of returning to bed and trying to sleep some more, but an odd noise coming from outside of his room stopped him. Sora went still and strained his ears to listen, and sure enough, there it was again: An odd, gagging sound.

Quietly, Sora opened his door and followed the noise to the bathroom in the hallway. Sure enough, his suspicions of someone vomiting were confirmed when he saw the lights on and his mother hovering over the sink. He approached the doorway and leaned against its frame with a worried expression. "Mom? Are you sick?"

"No honey, I'm fine."

It was hard to believe that she was fine while the smell of vomit hung in the air. Sora pursed his lips, and then spoke again. "Is there anything I can get you?"

"No no. Just, sit in the living room. I need to talk to you about something."

Frowning, Sora detached himself from the doorway and did as his mother told him. He sat down on a sofa and waited with a funny feeling. It was strange for his mom to want to have a conversation with him so early in the morning. The sun was barely up and able to illuminate their dark living room.

When Nessa was done making herself presentable again, she shuffled over to the living room and settled on the loveseat across from Sora. She folded her hands on her lap, and after a pause, decided that it was time to come clean. "Sora, I'm pregnant."

A speechless silence was her only answer.

"It's Cloud's. And actually, this is why we decided that he should move in with us. He wants to be a father to this child, and maybe, we can all be a good family together. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you sooner, I was waiting for the right time. And I'm sorry if this makes you angry, but if you need someone to blame then blame me and not the baby or Cloud. I could have handled things better but I didn't." Nessa paused to let Sora speak. When silence ensued, she continued in an even tone, "If there's anything you want to say to me, then say it now. I won't be angry."

At first, Sora couldn't say anything. There was no immediate reaction to the news because he was so shocked. His blue eyes were wide and luminous when he finally gained the nerve to speak. "..Is it a boy or a girl?"

"Boy," answered Nessa.

A breath that Sora didn't know he was holding wheezed out. "I always wanted a little brother." He sniffled, and then wiped at tears that were streaming from his eyes. "I always asked dad if he would give me one."

Nessa lifted from the loveseat and sat down next to her son. She circled him in her arms and pulled him close to her chest. Her own eyes filled with tears as Sora sobbed lightly. "He's not a replacement. Cloud was never about replacing your father ok? What happened was tragic, and unfair," her throat thickened with sorrow, making her voice pinched and congested, "but we can't keep living in the past!"

"I don't want to forget him!"

"No no, no one's forgetting him. Every time I see your face I see him. But do you really think he would want us to live in sadness like this? We've been in the darkness too long, baby. Three years is much too long. Our lives are passing us by."

In his heart, Sora knew that what his mom was saying was true. His father would never want him to live his life unhappy. It was just so hard to accept that he was gone. He loved him so much. But sadly, love didn't have the power to bring back the dead.

As they held each other, the sun rose outside of their home. The day was starting as it always did, without waiting for anyone to catch up to it. Time was passing by, taking with it the precious hours and minutes and seconds of their lives.

"Do you still love dad?" Asked Sora brokenly.

"Of course," answered his mother. "I'll always love him."

"What about Cloud?"

"I'm in love with him."

"How can you love two people at the same time?"

"Oh Sora." Nessa brushed the brown hair that was under her cheek. "You can't define love. It is what it is. I'll always be this fuzzy thing that you'll never understand."

"Fuzzy love," Sora murmured. "If you never know what it is, how do you know if you're in love?"

"Some people do, some people don't. You can be in love for years and never realize it. But let me tell you what I've learned, and this is something that you and your father taught me." Nessa touched the top of one of Sora's hands, and her son obliged her by turning his palm up to receive it. "You never have to go looking for love. it's all around you. I love you, your friends love you, and I'm sure you'll meet people in your life who will fall in love with you. This baby, who isn't even born yet, already loves you. Your father, even though he's not here, still loves you. And if you give Cloud a chance, he'll love you too, because you are my Sora."

The early morning light was warming the room. Birds were already chirruping to greet the day, and the tropical flowers that only bloomed when it was cool and bright opened their colorful petals to drink in the sun. Sora touched his mother's stomach. It was too soon to feel anything moving, but he knew that there was a little brother in there.

And he fell in love.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Later on that day, Sora, Riku, Kairi and Dyne met at the crash site. With a solemn air, they dug up the hidden pieces of the ship and laid them out on the grass. Dyne knelt down, touched the triangular gummi that Sora had painted as his personal sTaR mAp, and light began to glow from the object. All the pieces of the ship suddenly became animated and moved under their own power. They oriented themselves into proper position and danced to the places where they belonged. One by one, they came together and sealed with a flash of light, and when it was over, a ship that was roughly 18 x 16 inches in size was sitting on the grass. Everyone peered down at it at amazement.

"I'm guessing its not supposed to be that small," commented Riku.

"It'll enlarge when we need it to." For once, Dyne didn't bother to be snarky with Riku.

"When will that be?" Riku figured that Dyne wasn't in the mood to be sarcastic because the catboy was finally faced with the reality of departing from their planet. Since watching the alien leave was going to be difficult for his friends, Riku chose to respect everyone's feelings and not pick a fight.

"Tonight." Dyne didn't want to test Axel and remain on Earth until the very last day of his ultimatum. He knew that the Rajah's son encountered Sora personally just to show Dyne that at any given moment, he could sweep in and kill everything that mattered to him.

"So soon?" Asked Kairi. Tears were gathering in her eyes.

"Yes. Because they're here." Dyne turned to face the humans that were gathered around him. "They gave me a time limit of a few days. The last day is tomorrow. I'd rather leave now before they expect it. At least I'll have a chance to escape again."

"So that's why," whispered Sora. Now he understood why Dyne had been acting so strange for the past couple of days. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"There's no reason for you guys to worry about me. As I'm sure Riku can testify, I've been a pain in the ass since I got here and it's about time you got rid of me. I can deal with my own problems." Dyne nearly fell over when Kairi launched herself at him to grab him in a hug. He sighed and held her softly. The last thing he wanted to do was to leave Kairi in tears.

After several long moments, Kairi stepped back and it was Sora's turn to gather Dyne up in another hug. There were many things he wanted to say, but he couldn't say them in front of his friends. Perhaps the next time they had a private moment together, Sora would be able to tell his alien friend how much he meant to him.

When their hug ended, Dyne walked up to Riku. The two of them stared at each other until Dyne stuck out his hand. Riku eyed it, then with a soft "hmph," he lifted his own palm. After they shared a firm handshake, the boy pointed to the checkered band on his wrist. "I guess you'll be wanting this back."

Dyne smirked. "Keep it. It'll be a souvenir."

"Oh." Seeing the wristband reminded Kairi of something. She hurriedly wiped her eyes and then dug into her pockets. "Dyne." When she found what she was looking for, she held out the palm of her hand, revealing two rings: one white and one black. "These didn't become a part of the ship."

"They're not a part of the ship, they're mine." Wearing a grim smile, Dyne took the rings and slipped them over the middle and index fingers of his left hand. Kairi had found the last of his missing weapons. It was like his armory was returning to him because they knew they would be needed. When Dyne looked up from his rings, he found himself surrounded by faces that looked as somber as his, so he tried to change the topic. "So. Think your mom finished cooking dinner yet, Sora?"

Just like that, they focused their attention away from Dyne's imminent departure. They left the island, and instead of burying the newly rebuilt spacecraft they took it with them. Once the teenagers made it back to the mainland, they parted ways momentarily to check in with their parents.

There were only a few hours left until nightfall. All Sora wanted to do was spend it in his lover's company. Since his mom and Cloud were home, Dyne shape shifted into a cat and remained that way while Sora ate dinner. Afterwards, the boy fixed a plate for his pet for the last time.

Sora then brought Dyne outside. In front of his house, there were two palm trees with a hammock strung between them. The boy settled inside of it and cuddled his yellow cat to his chest. "I decided," Sora murmured as he slowly stroked his Dyne's fur, "your new name. I like Roxas. It has all the letters of my name, but its got an x in it because you're an alien. That way, no matter where you go, you have something that reminds you of when we were together."

The newly named Roxas nuzzled Sora and curled his tail between his hind legs. The boy smiled softly at his pet's acceptance of his new name.

Later on, Kairi stopped by so that they could wait for nightfall together. She found Sora in the hammock with Roxas, and smiled at how adorable they looked together. Quietly, she opened the hammock more and slipped inside. She turned on her side to face Sora and rested her arm on his chest so that her fingers could idly stroke Roxas.

Last to arrive was Riku, who approached the hammock with mixed feelings. He didn't know how things were going to be once Roxas left their planet. He could plainly see that Sora and Kairi had attached themselves very closely to Roxas, and to each other. Their feelings ran skin deep, and Riku wondered if he had a place in that anymore. While his friends huddled together in the hammock, he sat on the grass and gently pushed them back and forth.

Cloud and Nessa were sitting in the porch of the house. Sora's mother felt relieved and elated ever since she had her talk with her son that morning. All her doubts about whether things were going to work out with Cloud and the baby were cleared. As she turned her gaze to the sky, she silently thanked her late husband for his blessings.

At sunset, the crickets began their evening serenade. It was almost time to return to the crash site. Sora and Kairi looked so peaceful together that Riku was reluctant to disturb them. However, in the end he never needed to.

Down the road, six black SUVs with tinted windows were approaching the home. It was unusual to see many cars on Destiny Islands, so they caught the attention of Cloud, Nessa and Riku immediately. When they were close enough to be heard, Sora and Kairi opened their eyes and peeked to see what all the commotion was about. Unlike everyone else, Roxas tilted his ears away from the noise and refused to get up.

The cars circled Sora's house and parked in a circle that blocked the front, back, and sides of the property. Cloud stopped reading his newspaper and stood up; face growing dark when he saw the crest of the Jenova Project etched on the sides of the vehicles. He stalked down the driveway followed by a bewildered Nessa just as people in black uniforms began to dismount from the cars. "What is going on here? What's this all about?"

The men in uniform ignored Cloud in favor of securing the perimeter of the house. With growing anger, the man grabbed one of the people rushing by and made that person look at him. "Who's in charge here?"

"I am," said a smooth voice.

Cloud recognized it immediately. He released the person he was manhandling and whirled to face someone he had not seen in a very long time. "Sephiroth," he hissed contemptuously. Sephiroth was an eccentric ex-colleague with antisocial tendencies and an insanely long sheet of bleached hair that practically hung to his knees. Cloud broke all ties with the man when he came to realize that his fellow scientist bordered on sociopathy. "Mind explaining why you're raiding my girlfriend's property like you're the police?"

"Good evening to you as well," answered Sephiroth dryly. "Do not be alarmed. We are following a routine protocol for removing a dangerous animal."

"What dangerous animal? Why were we not informed if there was a dangerous animal on the premises? That falls under Mako's jurisdiction, not the Jenova Project. I have exclusive rights."

"Your rights extend to the marine life of Destiny Islands, not the terrestrial. We are looking for a land animal." Sephiroth was barely looking at Cloud as he spoke. He was scanning the area for signs of his quarry.

"There aren't any land animals on Destiny Islands that do not have a marine origin. This is an island! If it crossed the ocean, it's my jurisdiction! And now you're unethically trespassing this woman's property -"

"Sephiroth, we found the target," cut in one of the uniformed men. While everything was going on, the teenagers tried to slip away with Roxas, but were caught by the men in black. Several of them were carrying tranquilizer guns, and they were all trained on the yellow cat in Sora's arms.

"What are you pointing at those children? Get those away from my son!" Nessa began to rush over to where the teenagers were being penned in by the men. "You have no right to do this, someone call the police!"

"Mom! Don't get any closer!" Sora shouted. If one of those guns went off, his mother or the baby could get hurt. He was about to make a break for it when a sharp pain made him jerk his arms.

Roxas attempted his own escape after biting Sora. As soon as he hit the dirt, he began running as fast as his four legs could take him.

"Sedate it!" Ordered Sephiroth.

"NO!" Kairi's scream went unheeded. The men did as they were ordered, but the first volley of tranquilizer darts missed the target due to the fact that Sora, Riku and Kairi started grappling for the weapons.

"What the fuck is wrong with you Sephiroth! You came to steal a CAT?" Cloud couldn't believe what he was seeing. This was insanity!

Instead of answering for his actions, Sephiroth leveled his own tranquilizer at the cat, and with one squeeze of the trigger, hit the running target dead on. Roxas went tumbling paws over head before sliding to a painful stop, flanks heaving a mile a minute. The place where the dart had embedded itself into his back was staining red with blood.

"You monster!" Riku surged forwards to fight Sephiroth, but was restrained by three of the uniformed men. He bucked and punched and managed to break someone's jaw, but they steadfastly kept him from taking out his anger on Sephiroth. Obviously, they were well used to these kinds of situations arising with the scientist's exploits. Sora and Kairi were in similar situations, although they needed less force to be held down.

The commotion was building in crescendo and attracting the attention of the neighbors. However, all the struggling and shouting ceased when a flash of light suddenly came from the cat. The people gathered looked on in bewilderment when Roxas' figure changed to that of an unconscious boy with cat ears and a tail. The dart was still firmly embedded in his back.

Cloud's mouth dropped open. "The blonde headed kid..?"

Nessa was so shocked that she had to lean against a palm tree to keep from fainting.

"As you can see, this is far beyond your jurisdiction. I'm afraid that Mako doesn't have the resources to handle a find of this size. Maybe if you had stayed with us instead of leaving our organization, you might have been a part of this, Cloud." Sephiroth's long hair trailed behind him like a silver cape as he strode towards the fallen Roxas.

"I would never be part of a research team that destroys everything that it's trying to study," uttered a shocked Cloud. Immediately, he retrieved his cell phone and began contacting the authorities.

Just as Sephiroth reached Roxas, Sora managed to break away from the uniformed man that was restraining him by kneeing him in the groin. He rushed towards the drugged alien and fell to his knees beside him. Sora ripped out the tranquilizer dart and gathered Roxas' limp body to himself. "This is my cat!" He spat at Sephiroth. "You can't have him, he's mine! He belongs to me!"

Sephiroth raised a thin brow at Sora. "You are obviously hysterical." Then he raised his tranquilizer gun and shot the boy at point blank range.

Everything went dark.  
  
  
  
**To be continued.**  
  
  



	12. Chapter Twelve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Author** : Cold Silence  
>  **E-Mail** : writer.coldsilence@gmail.com  
>  **Pairings** : Riku + Kairi + Sora, Sora x BHK. (BHK = Blonde Headed Kid from KH II)  
>  **Warnings** : AU, Yaoi, Het, Furs, Dubious Consent. OOC Roxas due to the fandom personality he was given before information on his character was released with KH2.  
>  **Webpage** : https://coldsilence.tumblr.com/post/433113072/index
> 
> **Special Note** : This fic has relationships with things that have tails. Also, this story was started before Roxas's name was revealed, hence why he is named differently in this fic. Don't worry though, this actually fits well with what I have planned for him in the end.  
>   
>   
> 

**Fuzzy Love**  
- _Chapter Twelve_ -  
  


Ambulances and squad cars went screeching towards Sora's house. By now, every neighbor within a five-mile radius was either standing on their porch or walking over to see what was going on. The police had to shoo away onlookers while the scene continued to erupt in chaos. Sora's mom was screaming, Riku was still trying to tear Sephiroth a new one, Kairi was crying, and men in black uniforms were loading Roxas onto one of the SUVs.

Although Sephiroth flashed important looking documents at the officers, he was still arrested and sent to the police station for shooting a tranquilizer dart at a minor. The cops then inspected Roxas's naked, tailed body, and were unable to discern if he was an actual human or some freak of nature. In the end, they decided on the latter since Sephiroth had the paperwork to prove that he was here specifically to retrieve the catboy.

Everyone could only watch as the black SUVs drove away with Roxas, one after the other as if the cars were part of a funeral procession. Cloud smacked one of the vehicles' windows as they passed by out of frustration.

From the safety of a royal poinciana tree, Axel and Larxene observed the fate of their missing Jumi.

"Are you going to play hero and save him from the humans?" inquired Larxene.

"No," answered Axel tersely. "Let him experience how they betrayed him."

"Do you honestly believe that this will send him running back into your paws? Dyne has mated with that human boy. His heart is forever lost."

"The mating doesn't count if his other is not one of our kind. At best, their bond is one sided. It was doomed to failure from the start."

"Even so, the Spiral Claws will not accept a cat that has mated outside of our clan. They will demand that you leave him in the desert to die."

"He mated with a human, it doesn't count!" Axel began to bare his teeth in warning.

"It will count when all the kitlings begin to question the ritual of the Estrus! It is impossible to hide the smell of someone who has been bonded. They will know that it wasn't you. Not only will you incite mutiny among all the young cats, but you will lose the respect of your clan. Axel, you must leave Dyne for dead and let us return home!"

Larxene's breath hitched when Axel suddenly reached over and fisted her throat. She was effortlessly pulled off her branch and dangled in midair by the powerful grasp around her neck.

"Know your place Jumi. I am Rajah of your clan. And I get everything that I want," Axel hissed. He then brutally threw Larxene to the ground.

It was only by the courtesy of Larxene's reflexes that she was able to upright herself and land safely. She delicately reached up to touch the gouges that Axel left on her throat with his fingers and silently cursed the fact that this insane cat was now king of their clan. His obsession with Dyne was going to destroy everything that the Spiral Claws have worked to build.

Unfortunately, Larxene was powerless to do anything about it. She had given an Estrus to Axel and therefore feared losing herself by disobeying him. As she stood up with head bowed, a breeze detached several red flowers from the royal poinciana. They fell around her like a rain of blood.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Sora was rushed to the hospital for an emergency detoxification. Thankfully, the dosage of tranquilizer he received was not fatal, but it was enough to make him comatose for a few hours. Medication to counteract the sedative's effects was fed into his veins, and he was put under observation until he woke up.

When Sora finally began to come around, he spent a good amount of time in confusion and ataxia. He vaguely registered when friends and family came to check on him and could not understand what was going on. Most of the time, he wondered why he was in bed without Roxas sleeping on his chest.

Eventually, the confusion cleared and Sora regained motor control of his limbs. With the return of his memories came rising panic over the fact that everything he feared had just come true. Roxas's secret was out; there was nothing left to say or do to hide the reality anymore.

Still, when a policeman came by to take his testimony, Sora clung to his half-truths because they had come to feel unnaturally right. He looked the officer in the eye, and bluntly told him, "The guy with the long white hair came to my house and stole my cat."

Officer Leon raised one slender brow at Sora. "Your cat?"

"Yes."

"And this same man was the one that shot you with a tranquilizer dart?"

"Yeah, I was trying to protect my cat and he shot me. Look, you've got to arrest that guy before he hurts my cat. He could be doing anything to him right now."

"We have already taken him into custody." Leon finished writing in his notebook and then looked up at Sora. "Is there anything else that you want to go on record?"

"What about my cat? Aren't the police going to bring him back to me?"

"That's an issue for animal control. I have already spoken to your mother about contacting them." Upon seeing the sad look on Sora's face, Leon added, "Sorry, that's all we can do."

Afterwards, Leon left Sora's hospital room. The officer had been there on the scene when they inspected Roxas's body, so he was beyond disturbed by the boy's testimony. How could anyone call that thing their cat?

When Leon reached the lobby, Cloud stood up from where he had been sitting with an expectant look. The officer took one look at the blonde man and then shook his head slowly. "That was the strangest statement I've ever taken."

"What did he say?" Asked Cloud.

"He said that the thing Jenova picked up is his cat."

Cloud looked away and pursed his lips to prevent himself from saying anything unsavory in front of a police officer. When he managed to collect himself, he said, "The kid was pumped full of telazol, of course the things he says aren't going to make any sense. You should strike his statement from the record and then take a new one when his doctor says that he's in his right mind. The real story here is that Sora has been hiding a feral child in his home for weeks. The Jenova Project got wind of it and illegally confiscated the child without a permit."

"Actually, they do have a permit. It was issued overnight. Their attorney also issued a statement saying that the animal they confiscated is carrying a deadly disease."

A deadly disease? Cloud laughed dryly. It was just like the people at Jenova to issue such a blatant lie. "I suppose they also have a good excuse for shooting a tranquilizer dart through an innocent kid's shoulder."

"Professor Strife, I just took a statement from a boy that said that the thing we saw in the van is his pet. If he was spouting that nonsense when he was tranquilized then I can see why Sephiroth chose to put him down. He's either in hysterics or just plain crazy."

Cloud roughly shoved his hair back from his face. He wished he could have been in that room to tape Sora's mouth shut before he convinced everyone that he needed psychotherapy.

Leon watched Cloud stew in his own anger for a few moments before adding, "I don't expect that they'll keep Sephiroth in custody for very long. Jenova is well paid. He'll probably post bail within the hour."

"I'm not surprised," muttered Cloud. "It wouldn't be the first time they did something like this."

"If there are any changes, I'll let you know." Leon proceeded to walk away.

Cloud waited until Leon left the hospital before he went to Sora's room. Upon arriving, he found the boy sitting up and staring at his hands miserably. Wordlessly, the man grabbed a stray seat beside Sora's bed, turned it so that it faced the boy and sat on top of it. Sora seemed to be ignoring him, because he didn't acknowledge Cloud's presence at all.

Despite Sora's silence, Cloud spoke anyway. "Your mom is talking to the doctors now. They think you'll be fine to go home within the hour." He paused to let Sora say anything, and when no response came he continued, "When were you going to tell us?"

Sora continued to stare at his hands for a while, but eventually he answered. "Never. You would never understand."

Cloud folded his arms across his chest and looked to the ceiling. Then, he leveled his gaze at Sora and said evenly, "You were sleeping with it."

Sora stiffened. The fact that Cloud knew sent a cold chill down his spine. Shame made him duck his head and close his eyes tight against the tears.

The thought that Sora was having sex with Roxas occurred to Cloud when he saw the cat transform into a boy. Now it finally made sense as to why Nessa suspected that there was someone new in the house that they couldn't find. It also explained the mysterious fiascoes that happened before Cloud moved in, and not to mention why the man sometimes heard an extra voice in Sora's room when he came to knock on the boy's bedroom door. However, Cloud's suspicion wasn't confirmed until now, when he saw the look of guilt and shame on Sora's face.

There were many ways he could have approached this situation. As an adult, he could have reprimanded Sora for doing something so irresponsible and thoughtless. As a scientist, he could have told the boy that what he did went beyond what was intended for human nature and therefore was deviant and wrong. As Nessa's boyfriend, he could have told Sora that his actions were breaking his mother's heart and hurting their family.

In the end, Cloud decided that he was going to speak as Cloud, because that was what Sora needed if they were going to get past this. "I'm not here to judge you. There isn't a single adult that doesn't have a skeleton in their own closet." Granted, they weren't as big as Sora's, but Cloud knew that there were worse things out there. "I want to help you Sora, but I can't if you don't let me in."

Sora shook his head as he wiped tears from his eyes. "You would never believe me," he whispered.

"You won't know that until you try me."

This was stupid. Sora didn't think that Cloud would believe him in a million years. A part of him kept saying that this was just another act to fool him, and to prove it, he gave Cloud exactly what he wanted: the truth. "You want to know who he is? Fine. Roxas is an alien. He came from outer space. He comes from a whole world of cat people just like him. That's the truth, happy now?" _Choke on it Cloud!_

Surprisingly, Cloud continued to give Sora a serious look instead of immediately discounting what he said. His next statement shocked Sora. "He came during the meteor shower."

"..Yes." Sora stared at Cloud with wide eyes. "Yes he did! He crashed -"

"On the third island from the mainland. The one that's uninhabited," finished Cloud. While Sora gaped at him, he leaned back on his seat. "I was surveying the meteor shower that night. My instruments picked up the crash landing. I have it all on tape."

"Why didn't you tell anybody!" Sora couldn't believe it. Cloud knew that there were aliens on Destiny Islands all along and he didn't say a word!

"Are you crazy? The last thing I need is to be labeled as a quack scientist. I would lose all my funding. Besides, when I checked out the island the next day, I didn't find a single trace of the ship."

"That's because Roxas can make his spaceship go to pieces and shrink. I found him on that island the same night that it happened. I thought he was just a cat back then." As much as Sora hated to admit it, it felt tremendously good to be able to tell the full and complete truth to Cloud. A weight that he didn't know was there was lifted off his chest. "But then he turned into a boy and I just didn't know what to do. He started going to my school, he met all my friends, and we became really close." Sora trailed off after that since he doubted that Cloud wanted to hear the sordid details of his sexual relationship with Roxas.

Cloud shook his head and grinned in the way people do when they acknowledge that the world is a lot more insane than they previously realized. "I can't believe it was living with us all this time. I thought it was out there when it was really under our roof. Fucking my girlfriend's son." Forget Sora, Cloud was the one who was going to be needing psychotherapy after this.

Sora's bottom lip tucked outwards in an angry pout. "Don't talk about him like that! He has feelings. He had a family too." The boy continued with a scowl, "But all that isn't important right now. He wasn't supposed to come here. He landed on Destiny Islands to get away from dangerous people from his world. But they found him anyway, and now they're here, and if they don't get him back by tomorrow night then something awful is going to happen."

Cloud frowned. An alien invasion was a scenario that haunted the man for many nights after witnessing Roxas's spacecraft crash on Destiny Islands. "It's not going to be easy to get Dyne away from Jenova."

"Roxas." At Cloud's questioning look, Sora explained, "That's his name, Roxas. He wanted me to give him a new one." 

The alien's true name was such a minor detail at this point that Cloud didn't really put a lot of thought into it. "Whatever his name is, what we have to do is get our story straight. I am going to call my lawyers and negotiate Dyne's - Roxas's - whoever he is - I'll find a way to get him out as fast as I can. If anybody talks to you, especially your mom, you tell them that you found a homeless kid wandering in the woods and were nice enough to take him in."

"You want me to lie to my mom?"

"Is it anything new?" Cloud gave Sora a stern look, but the expression melted a few moments later. "Why don't we make a promise not to lie to each other? I know that you don't like me, but we can at least be honest."

Sora supposed that Cloud would have to be incredibly stupid not to realize that he didn't exactly like the man. However, the boy came to realize in the past few days that it wasn't anything personal against Cloud; his family was simply a territory that he wasn't willing to share.

In answer to Cloud's proposition, Sora nodded lightly and answered "okay." Then Cloud turned to leave, but before he could go too far, the boy called him back. "Hey Cloud." When the man paused to hear what he had to say, Sora smiled. "I can't wait to meet my little brother."

Now it was Cloud's turn to look guilty. However, when he saw the genuine smile on Sora's face, he couldn't help but give a small one of his own. They promised to be honest to each other, and that was a good start. Now, Cloud was going to go on and repay the debt he made for irrevocably changing Sora's life by helping to save Roxas's.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Sora was discharged from the hospital that same night. When he arrived home, it was to find that the activity around his house never stopped. Nosey neighbors kept coming by until Nessa started slamming the front door in their faces. Congregations of lawyers and researchers arrived in platoons of cars that cluttered the driveway. They took over the living room to discuss their action plan against the Jenova Project and covered every table in papers and cell phones and laptops.

Sora was not allowed to see or talk to his friends since his mother chose to ground him for an indefinite amount of time. The boy wasn't told what he was specifically being punished for, although he was sure that secretly keeping a shapeshifting cat in the house played a big role in the decision. Nessa was having a hard time swallowing everything that she had seen and heard that day, but despite her denial she still grounded Sora because while he was indoors she knew that he was safe from whatever was out there.

Unfortunately, being punished wasn't going to keep Sora from making his own plans. Around two in the morning, he rolled out of bed and got dressed as quickly and quietly as possible. By now, Cloud and his lawyers had left the house to begin their negotiations with Jenova, and his mother was in her room trying to sleep. If there was a time to commence a rescue attempt for Roxas, it was now.

Since what Sora was planning involved a lot of sneaking around, he threw on a black hoodie and shorts. Then he filled two red bags with flashlights, batteries, waterproof capsule wallets, his cell phone and a pocketknife. After the bags were lashed to his sides, he opened the window to his room and leapt to the grass outside. Then he ran across his lawn towards the thicket of palm trees across the road to his house. 

Just as Sora reached the safety of the shadows, a familiar voice went "Pssst." The boy stopped jogging and turned toward the source of the whisper. "Riku?"

Riku stepped out of the darkness of palm fronds, and moonlight immediately illuminated his silver hair and white jacket. "I knew you were going to try to play hero."

"So you were spying on me until I came out?"

"Mmhmm." Riku was utterly shameless in his admission. "You shouldn't have dressed all in black, you'll only draw attention to yourself. People will think you're committing a burglary."

"People won't think anything if they don't see me. Besides, if you dress in white then everyone will see you and you won't be able to sneak in anywhere." Sora turned a critical eye at the clothing that Riku was wearing. His denim pants could probably blend into the darkness, but the yellow collar and white material of his coat were dead giveaways.

To rebuke Sora's criticism, Riku lowered his white coat to his elbows to reveal the sleeveless black tank top that he was wearing underneath it. "Stealth mode." Then he pulled the coat back to his shoulders. "Inconspicuous mode. Any questions?"

Sora hated it when Riku one-upped him like that. "Where are they keeping Roxas?"

"You mean Dyne?"

"His new name is Roxas."

"I'm not even going to ask." Riku scanned the area to make sure that no one had spotted them or was listening in, and then he continued. "They didn't go far. They set up a campsite on the north part of the island. They have all the roads sealed off and put up a barb wire fence. I know a way in though."

_Impressive._ Obviously, Riku had kept himself busy while his best friend was hospitalized and grounded. Sora was starting to feel a lot more optimistic now that he had the other boy's support in saving Roxas. "You did all that while I was gone?"

A grim smirk tugged at a corner of Riku's mouth. "I figured, if I'm not there for my best friend when he needs me, then I'm just asking for someone to take him away from me." Riku could tell that what he said confused Sora, but there was no time to explain what he meant. "Come on. If we're going to do this, we have to move out now."

"Right." _We're coming Roxas._

It turned out that Riku wasn't the only one who had been waiting up for Sora. Kairi was in contact with them at all times via the chirruping option of their cell phones. She was already waiting at the north side of the island with Roxas's spaceship and her family's speedboat. The plan was for the boys to sneak into the Jenova Project's campsite, rescue Roxas, and then make it to the shoreline so that they could get away on the speedboat and use one of the smaller islands as a launch site for the spaceship.

Their biggest problem was actually getting into the campsite. Not only was it surrounded by barbed wire, but it was also located on a high mountain that was covered with lush rainforest. The beach, a wooded area and a residential district flanked the east, west and south sides of the mountain respectively. To its north was a steep drop into ocean water. It was a popular tourist attraction due its hiking trails, the spectacular view it had of the island, its exotic flora and animals, and the gushing rivers that formed spectacular waterfalls.

Luckily, the boys had one major advantage: they knew the mountain very well. When they were younger, Sora's father used to take them on hiking trips all the time. There wasn't a single waterfall or pool of water that they hadn't fully explored or swam in. After approaching the mountain from the beach located on the east, they began ascending it via the hiking trails that they knew like the back of their hands.

They continued to travel along the trails for about half an hour. Then Riku veered off the path and began picking through the mossy rocks and trees towards the sound of rushing water. Sora instantly recognized the area, and his heart began to pound as he quietly followed his best friend. Eventually, they emerged from the dense underbrush and found themselves facing a pool of water that was fed by a waterfall.

Sora only came to this place once in his lifetime. In that one visit, he didn't swim or explore the falls, instead he came to stare at the water until the view swallowed his heart and left him empty.

"Remember?" Riku asked.

A fine mist was rising from the river, enveloping the boys as if it were the start of a dream.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Sora remembered the last promise that his father ever made to him.

His dad had said that Sora and Riku were getting too old for the games that they usually played, so he promised that the next one would be the one that made them men. However, the new game wasn't finished yet, and they weren't allowed to see it until it was done. So the man ruffled Sora's hair and told him to wait a little while for the best adventure of his life, and then he left the house to prepare it.

Sora was so excited. He could barely contain himself as he watched his father walk away in the noontime sun. He waited the whole day for him to come back. And he waited the next day. And he waited the next day.

On the fourth day, a policeman knocked on the door. With his hat in his hands, he told Sora's mother that they found her husband's body on the mountain. Nessa and Sora didn't believe it. It was impossible that someone they considered to be strong and resourceful could now be dead. That day, Nessa left with the police officer to identify the body, and Sora rushed up the mountain to see the place his father presumably died.

He found nothing there but a waterfall surrounded by police tape. It looked like a peaceful place for family picnics and a good swim. How could anyone die there? Why would his dad come to this place? If there was an adventure to be found there, was it really worth losing a life over?

Sora never figured out what it was that his dad had been working on, although he thought about it all the time. He spent his days half-expecting his father to walk through the front door and say that he was sorry for making him wait so long. When he was in bed, he silently listened for the bedroom door to open and his dad to creep in to kiss him goodnight. Sometimes, he had vivid dreams that the man was waiting for him there under the falls, and he would wake up frightened and crying.

If it weren't for Riku, Sora would have never gone to the viewing or the funeral. He refused to go, and none of the adults had the heart to make the boy change his mind. They were grateful when Riku took it upon himself to wrestled Sora all the way to the church, and turned a blind eye to the fiasco they made when they walked down the aisle.

They made it halfway to the coffin when Sora simply went limp with tears. An awful reality was waiting for him inside the casket and he covered his face and turned away from it. However, Riku wouldn't let him hide. He brought Sora to where his father laid in peace and made him face it.

_Look at him! Look at him Sora!_

_You have to say goodbye._

_You'll regret it forever if you don't._

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


"I came here to find out why it happened."

Riku's words nearly stopped Sora's heart. He looked up at his best friend with soulful eyes. "Did you find anything?"

Riku nodded. Instead of saying what he had found, he took off his jacket and gave his cell phone to Sora. Then he wordlessly dived into the pool of water, leaving his best friend to wait at the river's edge with bated breath. When he finally resurfaced a few minutes later, Sora was so relieved that he fell to his knees.

Upon returning to the riverbanks, Riku held up what appeared to be the frayed end of a long rope. Perplexed, Sora gingerly took it from him.

"If you dive underwater and follow this, it takes you to a cave behind the falls," Riku explained. "If we get inside the cave, we can follow it out to where they're keeping Roxas. They have no idea that we can sneak in that way."

"The game," Sora murmured. The one that was supposed to turn them into men. His dad had finished it after all. 

"Yeah." Riku gazed at Sora with bittersweet memory. "To make it behind the falls."

In the dead of night, the waterfall and natural pool were pitch black except for the places where moonlight touched. The water was deeper than fifteen feet and there wasn't a single rock or tree to hang onto once anyone made it close to the falls. They would have to swim completely under their own power and have the stamina to fight the powerful rapids in order to make it past them. Now Sora understood how something that looked so beautiful and benign in daylight could be deadly enough to kill.

"I'll go first. I'll be waiting for you on the other side." With that, Riku swam close to the rapids and dived beneath the churning water. Moments later, Sora could feel him tugging on the well-worn rope as he fought the gushing current to make it behind the falls. It felt as if an eternity had passed before the rope stopped twitching, which indicated that Riku made it to the caves.

Alone, Sora stared straight at the falls. He didn't dare to look directly in the black water, because he feared that his father's cold, bloated hand would reach up from the depths and drown him like it had several times in his nightmares. In the end, the game his dad created for fun and good memories turned out to be a deadly trap that would kill him if he was not ready to do this.

However, Sora had to do it if he wanted to get Roxas back. That thought fueled him as he placed their cell phones and flashlight batteries into the waterproof capsule wallets. The flashlights themselves were triple wrapped in plastic bags that he found stuck in the bushes and stuffed into his red bags. Then he stood at the edge of the water and took a deep breath.

_If you're out there, please help me._

The first plunge into the frigid water prickled his skin and immediately alerted his senses. Sora resurfaced to swim as close as possible to the point where the force of the rapids did not let him come any closer to the falls. The river around him was frothing and roaring in his ears like an angered monster; it took all his energy just to remain afloat and fight the currents pushing at his body.

Sora prepared himself mentally and physically for what he was about to do, and then he inhaled his last breath of air and dived. The rush of the falls was even more powerful underwater; he could hear pebbles rattling against the bedrock like a thousand-man march. He swam so deep that moonlight could not pierce his depth and water pressure threatened to burst his eardrums. When he felt the harsh material of the rope brush up against his cheek, he quickly wrapped his hands around it and clung for dear life.

_Sora._

His heart dropped. Sora opened his eyes despite the sting of the water, and looked ahead and above. The moonlight moved like a living thing with the currents, creating silvery shapes that twisted and beckoned with ghostly fingers.

Maybe what he saw was just his imagination, but suddenly Sora didn't feel so alone anymore. With renewed vigor, he put one hand in front of the other along the rope and kicked his legs to go forwards. The closer he came to the punchbowl, the more the falls pounded the air out of him and pushed him deeper towards the bedrock.

Suddenly, a vision of how his father died flashed in his mind with alarming clarity. He could see his dad testing the newly installed rope by using it to pull himself past the powerful rapids. His father made it as far as beneath the falls before his lungs started itching for air. He figured that it was safer to come up and breathe rather than continue with a diminished supply of air, so he let go of the rope and kicked his way to the surface, only to have the waterfall push him down again.

It was a losing battle against the currents. Even when he managed to break the surface, the water was so turbulent that he couldn't get a gulp of air without inhaling water. Eventually, he became so panicked that he couldn't tell left from right or up from down, and he drowned with the guilt that he never showed his son the right way to beat the rapids.

_I understand now. Going backwards is where you always went wrong._

Sora was not going to make the same mistake. Despite how his lungs burned, he didn't stop pulling himself along the rope. Hand over hand, he continued on as air bubbles slipped past his lips and currents made him drag against the bedrock. Then, like a miracle after a stormy day, the water around him calmed.

Sora let go of the rope and spiraled towards the surface as fast as he could. The first taste of fresh air after holding his breath for so long was heavenly. He made it. He was in the caves. "That was AWESOME!" He cried at the top of his lungs, before dissolving into noisy pants for air. Yet, despite his respiratory distress, Sora smiled and sometimes laughed as he swam towards the outcropping of rocks where Riku was waiting for him. "He-he did this for us!"

The only source of light within the caves was streaks of moonlight that pierced openings along the rocky ceiling. Stalactites hung to the ground like bowed unicorn heads, and water dripped to the damp floor in soft ker plops. The pool that Sora was swimming in was so calm that bioluminescent microbes made it glow red with every disturbance.

Riku knelt down to help the shivering, breathless Sora gain his footing on the slippery rock, but when he saw his friend's sticky lashes and happy smile, instead he leaned close and sealed their lips. Sora's panting abruptly stopped, as well as the rapid beating of his heart. In one small kiss, the last vestiges of innocent friendship took flight and never returned.

_How long?_ Sora wondered as his eyelids began to grow heavy with affection. _How deep?_ When Riku pulled away with a gentle murmur, Sora uttered "Riku" in hushed wonderment.

A light smile curved Riku's mouth, and then he leaned forwards and skirted the edges of Sora's cheeks with gentle brushes of his lips until he was close enough to whisper in his ear, "When this is over, let's find out if I can make you as hard as he can."

Sora's eyes snapped open with bewilderment. Apparently, Cloud wasn't the only one who knew about his sexual relationship with Roxas. He opened his mouth to explain himself, to say sorry for hurting Riku's feelings, to plead that he had no idea that what he was doing affected his best friend, but a finger to his lips kept the words from being said.

"Don't say anything." When Riku was sure that Sora would stay silent, he took his hand away from his friend's mouth and finally helped him out of the water. "Let's just go."

They had to press on. Sora returned Riku's cell phone to him and loaded up their flashlights with batteries. All too soon, they were well on their way to breaking into the Jenova Project's campsite.

_Riku._ Sora secretly watched his best friend's profile as they strode through the caves. _When did you fall in love with me?_

Somehow, Sora already knew the answer.

_Since forever._

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


The campsite of the Jenova Project was located on a piece of land that had been stripped of foliage due to years of overuse. Normally people used the area to stay on the mountain overnight, but today the parking lot and the camping grounds were cordoned off with hastily erected barbed wire fencing and checkpoints. It had been converted into a temporary quarantine for Roxas, who could not be immediately transported out of Destiny Islands due to being labeled as having a deadly disease. Once it was confirmed that he was not contagious then he would be airlifted to a more secure research facility.

Cloud was working long into the night with his lawyers to negotiate Roxas's release into Mako's custody. For hours, parties from both research teams sat at a picnic table and haggled over whom had the rights to the catboy. As their arguments went on into the late hours of the night, Cloud could see that the possibility of setting Roxas free was very slim. Too many powerful people were interested in dissecting the catboy and finding out all of his secrets.

If what Sora said was true, then there was approximately twenty-four hours left before "something awful" happened, whatever that would be. Cloud's eyes strayed towards Sephiroth, who looked rather bored with the proceedings as he picked at his fingernails with a pocketknife. None of them have any idea what they've gotten themselves into.

A movement at the corner of Cloud's eyes caught his attention. He peered in the direction of the lake that usually served as a bathing area for campers. To his surprise, two figures were emerging from a shadowy hole in the ground, and he instantly recognized to whom those heads of platinum and brunette belonged to. He couldn't believe that those boys had the balls to come all the way out here and actually find a way past the checkpoints.

"What are you staring at Cloud?"

Cloud's attention returned to Sephiroth, who was fixing a steely glare of suspicion at him. "A crook."

Before Sephiroth rose to that bait, he looked over his shoulder to peer in the direction of the river. Luckily, Riku and Sora had safely hid behind trash receptacles before they were spotted. The man then returned his attention to Cloud and raised one silver brow. "I am as much a crook as you are a deserter."

"Don't you start that conversation with me," Cloud seethed. "I thought the Jenova Project was a legitimate organization until I found out that it was well funded by the Shinra hotel chain. That's when I realized that you don't really destroy natural habitats in the name of science, you just wipe out the local wildlife so that there's nothing to preserve, and then Shinra can swoop in and buy all the land it wants for yet another five star hotel chain."

"You look into things too deeply."

Behind Sephiroth, Cloud could spy Sora and Riku stealthily sneaking towards the tent where Roxas was being kept. They were a pair of smart kids to be able to figure out right away which tent belonged to the alien. Then again, there was only one tent in the entire campground that had its own noisy generator and two guards standing at its entrance.

When Cloud saw the boys duck behind the tent, he shifted his gaze to the table to avoid drawing attention to them. He was beginning to guess what their plan was. That's not going to work. Roxas was hooked up to an electrocardiogram, if they didn't know how to deactivate it correctly then they would undoubtably draw attention to themselves. Unfortunately, there was no way to warn them in time, and when Sephiroth found out that there are intruders on site then he would use undue force to subdue them. Cloud had seen it happen a dozen times before in his employment with the Jenova Project.

The tent that Roxas was in shivered behind the two guards. Alarmed, Cloud began talking loudly to distract everyone's attention from what was really going on. "Why don't we quit the small talk and get to the facts. The protocol for collecting feral children doesn't apply to Dyne. I have several witnesses, including myself, that will testify that he has been going to school and living in a home like any other regular child. He's civilized and keeping him against his will is a violation of his rights."

"Since when do we give civilian rights to extra terrestrial beings?" Countered Sephiroth smoothly.

_What._ Cloud stared at Sephiroth. How did he know the truth of Roxas's origins? Who told him? Did they interrogate Roxas already? This was bad. Incredibly bad. If the catboy didn't get out now, he was never going to see the outside of a research lab ever again. "You're crazy!" shouted Cloud. At the very least, this outburst caused the commotion he was hoping for. Everyone at the table was now talking over one another and was too engrossed in the discussion to notice the break in occurring under their noses.

Meanwhile, Sora finished using his pocketknife to cut two parallel lines spaced wide enough apart to accommodate a person into the back of the tent. When he was done, he was able to flip up the canvas as if it were a square trap door. Luckily, the guards at the front of the tent were too busy paying attention to the argument at the picnic table to see what was going on behind them.

It was just as well, because Sora's attention zeroed in on what was in the middle of the tent. There was Roxas, lying flat on his back inside of a cage with narrow bars. An IV line pinched into his forearm fed sedatives into his blood to keep him unconscious, and several electrodes were attached to his chest to monitor his heartbeat. The electrocardiogram was beeping every few seconds to indicate a normal sinus rhythm.

Riku peeked into the tent to assess the situation as well, and then he crept inside on hands and knees behind Sora. Upon reaching the cage, he powered down the prismatic missiles as low as they could possibly go and began burning through the metal surrounding Roxas as if he had a small welding torch. One by one, he cut through the very top and bottom of the bars while Sora held on to their middles so that they wouldn't clatter to the floor once they were detached. They worked quickly and quietly, hearts beating fast with the thought of being found out.

Once there was a big enough space to carry Roxas through, Sora ripped the IV from his pet's arm and did the same for the electrodes attached to his chest. This action turned out to be a huge mistake. The IV machine began to beep that that there was an error, and the electrocardiogram rang shrilly as it registered a flatline. Everyone's eyes widened to oh shit proportions, and then Sora hastily grabbed Roxas's limp body and made a break for it with Riku.

The guards at the front of the tent immediately turned around and saw the boys escaping to the back of the tent. "Halt!" They shouted as they began to give chase. The commotion caught the attention of everyone at the picnic tables, and Sephiroth immediately stood up like a bloodhound that caught a scent.

Just then, a burst of red light ripped through the tent and caused it to collapse over the two guards that were inside. This bewildered the lawyers and scientists at the picnic tables, who were already on edge due to recent discussions about aliens and madness. People went into panic and threw themselves to the ground as if there were gunshots being fired.

The only one who didn't react was Sephiroth, who coolly reached beneath his black vest and retrieved a semi-automatic pistol. He checked the chambers with alarming familiarity and then removed the safety.

Cloud's eyes widened in disbelief when he saw what the other man was doing. "What are you doing? They're just kids!"

Sephiroth turned a hard glare at Cloud. What his fellow scientist just said gave away that he knew there was someone coming after the captured catboy. "Secure the perimeter," Sephiroth ordered his men, "and check the lake," he added with a special look for Cloud. "The alien is armed and dangerous, use force to subdue him." He then trotted off to search for the intruders.

The two guards that had gotten trapped beneath the collapsed tent managed to worm their way out. They claimed that they last saw the alien escaping with two boys through a hole that was in the back of the canvas. This sent a flurry of uniformed men to check the barbed wire fence for any openings that the intruders might have cut themselves in order to enter the campsite.

Cloud was the only person who wasn't searching or cowering beneath a table. Instead, he walked to the fallen tent because he wanted to figure what exactly was the source of the red light he had seen. He picked a section of the canvas off the ground and searched its surface until he spotted what appeared to be a perfectly round, two-inch hole surrounded by scorch marks. Perplexed, he peered through it, and was shocked to see Sora, Riku and Roxas on the other side. Apparently, they had hid themselves back inside the tent after it had fallen down.

"Squeal, and you'll be zapped," warned Riku in a low growl. He was holding the arm with the wristband up at Cloud's face. Beside him, Sora was looking up at his mother's boyfriend with an expression of pleading. Roxas was in his arms, and the catboy was too sedated to so much as twitch an ear.

Cloud looked around to make sure that no one was peering in his direction. Then he reached into his pocket, retrieved his car keys and tossed them through the hole in the tent. "They have guns. Get out now."

The boys were shocked, both at the fact that there were guns and that Cloud was helping them. Riku scooped up the keys and nodded mutely. Cloud returned the nod and let go of the tent's canvas. Then he walked in a direction opposite of where the parking lot was and began yelling at the top of his lungs, "Over there! They're behind the trashcans!"

Several uniformed men abandoned their search efforts to help secure the trashcans. This gave Riku and Sora the break that they needed. They quickly scurried out from beneath the tent and ran as fast and low to the ground as they could towards the parking lot. Thankfully, Cloud's jeep was unique enough to be picked out right away. Riku climbed into the driver's seat and Sora took the passenger side with Roxas. The catboy was stuffed into the leg space beneath the dashboard for protection.

Only one person didn't buy Cloud's claim that he spotted the intruders, and instead of helping to secure the trashcans Sephiroth went in the opposite direction: the parking lot. He was scanning the area with narrowed eyes when suddenly a jeep roared to life and flashed its high beams at him. Immediately, he pointed his gun into the glaring light and fired off two rounds.

Despite the shattering of the windshield, the jeep continued to roll over the gravel of the parking lot. Sephiroth leapt out of the way seconds before he was run over by the fast moving vehicle. The guards at the checkpoint likewise had to throw themselves to the side to avoid being crushed by the car as it burst through the barricades with ease.

"After them!" yelled Sephiroth.

Once they made it onto the paved road that circled the mountain, Riku and Sora lifted their heads from beneath the dashboard. They were both shaken from having bullets fired at them. "Are you ok?" Asked Riku tersely. His eyes never left the black asphalt in front of them. If he took any of the curves too fast, then they would end up falling down the cliffside. Needless to say, this was a really bad time to learn how to drive for the first time.

"I'm fine!" Sora brushed shards of glass off himself and Roxas's hair. "What are we gonna do? This is the only road down the mountain."

Their plans had been foiled when the uniformed men began searching the lake; they were originally going to escape back through the caves. Riku pursed his lips as he considered the options. "The woods. We'll lose them there. We just need to get to the bottom of the mountain."

Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. With a loud _tssew,_ a tranquilizer dart hit the dashboard and startled them. In the rearview mirrors, they could see black SUVs closing in with speed. There were men leaning out of their windows with tranquilizer guns.

"That stupid cat has got us into so much trouble," growled Riku. "Sora, you're going to have to drive. Get on my lap." The boy continued to control the car while Sora climbed over the seats and ducked under Riku's arms to sit on his legs. "Hands on the wheel." When Sora obeyed, Riku carefully took his own hands away to test if his friend could handle steering. They didn't crash, which was a good sign. "Now put your feet on mine. Right foot is drive, left foot is break. Got it?"

Sora ducked involuntarily when another tranquilizer dart went whizzing by their heads. His palms were sweating with the adrenaline rush. "Got it!"

"Don't worry about going fast, just keep us from falling off the mountain." Riku then lifted Sora's hips so that he could climb out from under him. The car decelerated when he took his foot off the gas pedal.

"What are you doing? Riku!" There was a note of panic in Sora's voice as he was resettled onto the seat.

"Don't worry, just drive!" As soon as Riku gave the order, the car lurched when Sora floored the accelerator. Riku tumbled onto the backseat, but thankfully didn't end up as road kill thanks to his friend's inexperienced driving. He quickly scrambled onto his knees, squinted past the silver hair that was whipping over his face like a rattlesnake, and aimed his palm at the cars behind them. A warning shot was fired with the prismatic missiles.

"Are you crazy?!"

Another tranquilizer dart whizzed between the seats and lodged inside the radio, causing it to explode into sparks. Sora was so startled that he momentarily lost control of the jeep and began swerving.

"Sora!" Riku tumbled to the floor of the backseat as he lost his balance for the second time. Their car fishtailed and came dangerously close to falling off the cliff. In his panic, Sora overcorrected the trajectory of the jeep and made it hug the shoulder of the road. The left wheels bit into gravel instead of asphalt, and overhanging branches started beating the side of the car. Riku had to stay tucked between the seats to avoid having his head taken off by the foilage. "What are you doing!"

"Look!"

It was hard to look with all the tree branches trying to tear his head off, but when Riku managed to peer to the right of the car he could see the problem: one of the black SUVs was riding beside them and boxing them in. The rear passenger window of the Jenova issued car rolled down, revealing Sephiroth. He pointed a gun at Sora's head. "The game is over. Stop the vehicle, now."

Riku's blood froze in his veins. His first thought was to fire at Sephiroth before he shot Sora, but there was no guarantee that he would hit the man first before he squeezed the trigger. "Do as he says Sora. We're done."

Sora gritted his teeth. He wasn't ready to give up yet. "Fine!" The boy then SLAMMED his feet on the breaks. Their jeep left skid marks on the road as they came to a bone grinding halt. Sephiroth's SUV shot ahead of them by several kilometers before its driver had the presence of mind to stop their car. The other vehicles that were chasing them from behind had to stop more quickly, causing a box car effect that left nearly every single one of them damaged. The sound of screeching tires and the crunch of metal echoing through the mountainside was chilling.

Sora was momentarily stunned from being slammed against the steering wheel. Someone's car wouldn't stop honking, and it took him a while to realize that it was the jeep. When he leaned away from the wheel, the noise finally stopped. "R-Riku?" He asked shakily.

A low grunt came from the backseat. Riku literally had to peel himself off the floor so that he could lean between the space of the front driver and passenger seat. "You are never driving again."

Just then, a soft moan came from Roxas's direction. Both of his cat ears were tilted off to the back, indicating his intense displeasure at the current situation.

"He's waking up!" Sora said happily.

"I guess almost having your brains spattered would wake anybody up," Riku said dryly. Then he took a look around, and noticed that they were in the only car aside from Sephiroth's that didn't get rear-ended. "This is our chance, let's go!"

"Right!" Sora floored the gas, and the jeep leapt to life again. This time, they could not be pursued by the cars behind them because they were too damaged from the accident to drive anymore. As they roared down the road and passed Sephiroth's SUV, Riku fired at their car hood and made their engine go up in flames. Sephiroth and his men immediately abandoned their vehicle moments before it exploded.

Sora couldn't believe it when the other cars began to grow small in the distance and then completely disappeared around the next bend. They did it. They rescued Roxas! "We're home free!" He shouted gleefully. 

Unfortunately, an ominous sound announced that the celebration was premature. In the distance, they could see a helicopter closing in on the mountain, and wherever there was a helicopter, there were sure to be cops. The chopper was heading towards the scene of the accident they had just left behind, but it wouldn't be too long before they spotted the jeep and shined their high powered spotlight on them.

With a grim expression, Riku reached over and turned off the high beams of the jeep. "Stop the car. Slow," he added quickly. The last thing they needed was to be catapulted out of the car thanks to Sora's jackrabbit stops. Once the vehicle wasn't moving anymore, Riku hopped out of the jeep, opened the passenger door and scooped Roxas from the floor. The catboy was quickly handed off to Sora. "We have to make a break for it on foot. Keep going down the north side of the mountain."

Sora gathered Roxas's body to himself with a frown. Riku made it sound as if he wasn't going to escape with him. "Aren't you coming?"

"I'll be right behind you. First, I'm going to blow up the car to make it look like we were in an accident."

"Cloud is going to be so mad."

"He's not the only one who's going to be mad. Heh." Riku lowered his head. The ramifications of what they just did were now hitting him. Even if they succeeded in getting Roxas off the planet, they were going to have to face questions from the police, their families, their classmates, maybe even the government. Who knew how this was going to affect their lives, or especially in Riku's case, his chances of getting a scholarship for college.

Sora looked at the somber expression on his Riku's face and felt bad. Maybe if he had never kept so many secrets from his best friend in the first place, none of this would have happened. "I'm sorry I got us into all this trouble."

"Don't be. You love him right?" Riku's gaze trailed down to Roxas, then back up to Sora's face. "Look, to protect our families, we have to protect.. Roxas." Riku stumbled over the new name. "And I made you promise that if you got in trouble, then I have to help. We're in this together to the end."

Sora gazed at Riku for a long moment, and then said in a quiet voice, "You're my best friend, Riku."

"Don't forget it," Riku answered softly.

Sora nodded in silent promise to never forget, and then he dashed into the rainforest with his burden. Riku likewise dived into the trees, but his intention was to find a safe spot away from the explosion. Once he was sure that his friend was too far ahead to be hurt from the blast, he would torch the jeep.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Sora wasn't sure how far he got before he heard the distant sound of an explosion. Overhead, he could hear the roar of a second helicopter joining the first that was already hovering near the mountain. The noise was so loud that he couldn't hear the nearby sound of a gushing waterfall.

Sora wanted to wait for Riku to catch up to him, so he gently placed Roxas on the ground to give his arms a rest. He was pleased to find that his pet now had his eyes open and was able to give him a dazed stare. With a sad smile, the boy began brushing layers of the catboy's choppy hair away from his forehead. "You know what I regret? That my mom and Cloud didn't get to know the real you. Now they won't believe me when I tell them that you were worth all this."

"I believe."

Sora jerked towards the source of the voice and found himself facing Axel. The alien was standing a few feet away and looked utterly menacing in the darkness. His green eyes were glowing like unholy jewels.

"That's why I will be taking Dyne off your hands now."

"You're one of them," Sora breathed. Immediately, he hooked one of Roxas's arms over his neck helped the catboy get to his feet so that they could start backing away from Axel. "You said we had until tomorrow night!"

"I changed my mind. I want my Jumi now." Axel advanced towards Sora, every step fanning his black cloak like an elegant black dress. "You think I don't know what he's planning? As soon as he gets on his ship, he'll try to escape again. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, I'll fucking kill you!" Axel extended his arms, and in a flash of black lightning and white light, two weapons appeared in his hands.

Sora had never seen anything like them. They resembled chakrams that he might have purchased to add to his weapons collection, but they were rimmed with spokes and colored in white and red instead of the pure chrome of metal. His stomach sank to the ground; all he had to protect himself against them was a pocketknife. "Why can't you just leave him alone? He just wants to be happy."

"Because," a crooked grin curled over Axel's mouth. "I've wanted to sink my cock in him ever since he was a kitten. Call me crazy," he drew back an arm and then snapped it forward to hurl a chakram at Sora. "But I think I'm in LOVE!"

Sora leapt aside with Roxas to avoid getting hit by the weapon and managed to escape with a grazed forearm instead of a decapitated head. Unfortunately, his shoe slipped on a patch of moss and he stumbled several feet down the steep hillside with his burden until they landed in a shallow river.

The current was moving very quickly because they were at the precipice of a waterfall. Sora scrambled to grab Roxas and pull his head out of the river before he drowned or floated away. Although the water was only as high as their knees, the poor catboy was so frightened that he threw his arms around Sora's neck and climbed onto his back. "Meow!" he called loudly.

"It's okay, Roxas, I got you!" Sora shakily began to climb to his feet despite the added weight, but ducked quickly when the same chakram that nearly took his head off earlier went whizzing by.

The weapon returned to Axel, who was descending the hillside with all the grace of a Katinan. He stopped just at the edge of the river and didn't dare to go further than that point, because he also feared the water. "His true name is Dyne. He belongs with his own people."

"No," murmured Roxas weakly. His muscles were now responding enough to allow him to curl his tail around Sora's waist. "I gave my first Estrus to Sora. I am Roxas."

"You're living in a dream world if you think any human or cat will accept this," Axel spat with a hiss. "Wake up and smell the catnip Dyne. Humans don't bond like we do. They love you briefly and then it ends. You'll be nothing more than a fond memory they compare to every lover they meet, until they find someone convenient enough to do their income tax with."

"Even if that's true," Sora said as continued to back away, "it doesn't matter. Because you don't live long anyway. Right Roxas?"

In silent understanding, Roxas tightened the hold that he had over Sora's waist and neck.

"So don't hold your breath," Sora finished, before filling his lungs with air and falling backwards over the falls.

"DYNE!" Axel extended a hand as if that would stop them, but it was too late. Sora and Roxas vanished into a black pit of roiling water located fifteen feet below the falls.  
  
  
  
**To be continued.**  
  
  



	13. Final

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Author** : Cold Silence  
>  **E-Mail** : writer.coldsilence@gmail.com  
>  **Pairings** : Riku + Kairi + Sora, Sora x BHK. (BHK = Blonde Headed Kid from KH II)  
>  **Warnings** : AU, Yaoi, Het, Furs, Dubious Consent. OOC Roxas due to the fandom personality he was given before information on his character was released with KH2.  
>  **Webpage** : https://coldsilence.tumblr.com/post/433113072/index
> 
> **Special Note** : This fic has relationships with things that have tails. Also, this story was started before Roxas's name was revealed, hence why he is named differently in this fic. Don't worry though, this actually fits well with what I have planned for him in the end.  
>   
>   
> 

**Fuzzy Love**  
- _Final_ -  
  


On the north side of the mountain, near its base where the trees gave way to ocean, the sound of stalks ripping and thumps preceded Riku's emergence from the rainforest. The last couple of feet to the water's edge was very steep, and he practically slid all the way down on his ass.

Once he was back on his feet, his aquamarine eyes scanned the darkness for any sign of life. He was relieved when he heard Kairi's familiar voice whisper "over here," and he combed the shadows for her presence until he spotted her arm waving from beneath a pile of ferns. It took a few moments to realize that she was still on the speedboat; Kairi had disguised it well using foliage that she had ripped from the mountainside.

Riku carefully picked his way across the rocks until he was able to board the hidden boat. "Where's Sora?" he asked as he sifted through the leaves for a place to sit.

"He's not with you?" whispered Kairi. A look of worry never left her face as she helped Riku cover his head with ferns so his bright hair wouldn't give away their location. "What happened?"

"We got separated." Before Riku could explain what happened, a helicopter began roaring in their direction. They became quiet and tense as the aircraft roared overhead, and thankfully continued on to search the rest of the mountain. Riku released a breath that he didn't know he was holding, and then continued speaking. "We got Roxas out. And by Roxas, I mean Dyne."

Kairi stared at Riku over Roxas's name change. "Is there anything he won't lie to us about?"

"It wasn't a lie; he just wanted to change his name."

Leave it to "Roxas" to make things more frustrating than they needed to be. Kairi bit down her urge to strangle the nearest thing and reached for her cell phone. "I'm going to try to chirrup Sora."

"The signal might not make it through the trees," murmured Riku. He peered through the leaves to survey the mountainside, and was disappointed that he could not spot any shaking trees or rising dirt that indicated that Sora and Roxas were heading in their direction. "What time is it?"

"It's almost 4."

Not good. They were supposed to have sent Roxas off into outer space by now. When the sun came up, the helicopters would easily be able to see their speedboat cutting through the water. "See any coastguard yet?" asked Riku.

"Not yet. They probably don't think we're smart enough to escape by water." When Kairi finished switching modes on her cell phone, she snapped it closed and spoke into its built in receiver. "Sora? Sora come in."

Riku could tell by the edge in Kairi's voice that she was close to panicking. The poor girl must have turned herself into a nervous wreck while waiting at the base of the mountain with her stolen family boat for almost four hours. He decided that getting her mind off things for a few seconds would help. "Kairi."

"What?"

"I kissed Sora."

Kairi lowered her cell phone to stare at Riku, and then she punched him in the arm, hard. "How can you pick a time like this to kiss him!"

Riku leaned away after being punched and shrugged his shoulders without apology.

"You know, it's just like you," ranted Kairi. Despite her initial reaction, however, she quickly cooled down by the time she asked her next question. "Well? Did he kiss back?"

"No. He just stared like a fish." To demonstrate, Riku opened his mouth and popped his eyes wide to mimic a slack jawed expression. Sora's real reaction hadn't been that bad, but to Riku that was what it felt like.

"That's a good sign. He didn't punch you." Kairi then fell quiet. Her eyes dropped down to her cell phone, which was heartbreakingly silent.

"You want to know who taught him how to kiss?"

"I think I kind of know," Kairi said glumly.

"They didn't stop at kissing either."

"Riku.." Kairi didn't want to hear about that. Her mouth and chin wrinkled with disgust at the mere thought of what Riku was insinuating. She first began to suspect who had been the one to teach Sora how to kiss when she saw the way he reacted when Roxas was shot with a tranquilizer dart. Then, in the long hours that she spent waiting for the boys to make it to the speedboat, she had been sitting there, thinking, and eventually pieced the truth together.

After a long stretch of silence, Kairi spoke again, "It figures that we'd be beaten by an alien."

Riku chuckled lowly.

Another few moments of silence passed, and then Kairi added with sadness, "I'm going to cry."

"Don't cry," Riku murmured. "We're still number one in Sora's book."

Kairi believed that. There wasn't a single moment that she doubted that Sora didn't love Riku and herself. It was always there, in his eyes, in his words, in his actions. However, where that love would lead was something that was always up in the air, like their futures. Now, she was realizing that Sora's love was never limited. He was free to fall for anyone that he wanted, and it hurt because she had a hope and a dream that might never be realized. Just like Riku, she needed time to be sad and mourn the loss, and then accept that if she loved Sora, then she had to let him go.

Her cell phone was placed back in her pocket. Sora wasn't answering from his end.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


By degrees, Roxas became aware of something thumping his back. At first, he thought that Tsuz was being annoying by kicking him awake, and when he opened his mouth to protest he vomited what felt like a gallon of water.

Relief flooded Sora when water began to bubble from Roxas's mouth. He quickly leaned the alien sideways to help coax the water out of his lungs. For two terrifying minutes, Sora had been giving his comatose pet CPR to revive him from a near drowning.

After taking a dive into the waterfalls, they were forced downriver for several kilometers before Sora finally managed to grab a log to keep them from being washed away. Miraculously, Roxas never let go of his tight grip until the very end, when he passed out from exhaustion and fright. He let go of Sora and got completely submerged while they were trying to pull themselves onto the log. Sora risked his life to go after him, pull him out of the water and swim to the shoreline without succumbing to the currents himself.

Needless to say, Sora was relieved to see the color returning to the alien's cheeks. "Just breathe," he told his pet, his own voice shaky and breathless from the recent scare. "I told you I would never let you drown."

Roxas would have laughed hollowly if he wasn't so busy coughing. When he finally got his burning lungs and throat under control, he looked up at Sora with glassy eyes. "Y-you came for me."

"Of course I did. Come on, Riku and Kairi are waiting for us." As tired as Sora was feeling, they couldn't stop now. The police were still out there, as well as Axel. He took one of Roxas's arms, ducked under it and began helping the catboy to his feet.

Roxas staggered to a stand and leaned heavily against Sora. "Even after all the crap I put you through.."

"Heh. What are friends for?" Sora flashed a bright smile at the alien, and then they began walking down the mountain together.

Poor Roxas still felt weak and uncoordinated from his sedation, however if there was one thing that he always knew how to do right, it was to hang on to Sora with everything that he had. They used the stars to guide them to the north side of the mountain, and by the time they arrived to the last stretch of land that bled into the ocean it was around 4:45 in the morning.

There was no describing the relief that Kairi and Riku felt upon seeing their friends safe and mostly sound. Roxas was quickly carried into the motorboat and wrapped up in a towel. Then they had a tense discussion about where they needed to go from there. Roxas was too weak to fly his ship, and the sun was minutes from rising. In the end, they decided to hide out on one of the islands and pray that they were not found until the next nightfall.

There were over 20 islands within the Destiny Islands chain, each of different size and density of wildlife. Since the sun was due to rise within minutes, they would only be able to go as far as the fifth island from the mainland before having to hide themselves from helicopters in the sky. The fifth island was actually the play island that they used to frequent when they were kids and now sometimes used to get away from the stresses of life. It contained a sandy beach filled with huts and tree houses, but they were more interested in the small mountain that made up two thirds of the land mass.

The speedboat was taken around to the mountainous part of island and beached. Sora, Kairi and Riku jumped out of the vessel and used their combined strength to push it completely onto the land so that it couldn't be spotted in the water by the helicopters. Then they made sure that every inch of the speedboat was covered in leaves so that it wouldn't be easily spotted by any passersby.

It was very early in the morning, and they were at their limits of stamina after enduring all the physical and emotional stress of the past 24 hours. They brought Roxas to a watering hole and tiredly bathed themselves and the catboy as best as they could.

"We're all going to go to jail," muttered Sora once he was done washing his face. He sat back on his bottom and stared at the canopy of leaves above them as if he was already sitting in a jail cell.

"We're too young to go to jail. We'll end up in Juvie," said Kairi solemnly. She was more familiar with the justice system because her dad was a lawyer. "We'll have a bunch of misdemeanor charges. Trespassing. Destroying property. Stealing."

"Half of that stuff could have been avoided if those weirdos hadn't chased us in their cars with guns," commented Riku. He didn't sound nearly as despondent as his friends, because he was taking great pleasure in dunking a listless Roxas underwater to clean him up. Every time the catboy had a chance, he gave Riku a murderous glare that made the boy smirk.

"You're right." Kairi's eyes suddenly lit up. "Those guys that were chasing you aren't the police. They could get in huge trouble for what they did. Maybe they won't even sue us."

"Being sued is the least of our problems," muttered Riku. Once he was done washing all the dirt from Roxas's body, he brought the alien to the edge of the watering hole and started to vigorously towel him off.

"I'm sure we can get off with parole or community service. Really guys, this isn't as bad as it looks." Kairi sounded hopeful, and that made the boys feel better about their situation as well. At least they weren't going to be stuck in jail for life.

"What about Roxas?" asked Sora. "They'll want to know where he is."

"They stole your cat, and you decided to get even. You broke into their camp, toppled one of their tents, stole a car and took a joyride down the mountain. Your crazy friends helped." Riku gave his proposed explanation matter-of-factly while he helped Roxas get dressed. Thankfully, Kairi had brought a pair of extra clothing for the alien in the event that they found him naked. Riku pulled a pair of boxers over catboy's legs and smacked his ass for good measure. Roxas gave a satisfying mewl. "We didn't see any alien catboys."

"Riku, you're a genius!" Kairi clasped her hands together with delight.

"What about the car we blew up?" asked Sora with a skeptical look. He found it hard to believe that they would be able to get off the hook by simply denying the evidence.

"You guys blew up a car?!" Kairi gaped in astonishment.

"What cars? I didn't blow up nothing. Not like I have a gun or anything." Riku smirked. To further make sure that they wouldn't be caught red handed with any weapons, the checkered band that he wore was transferred to Roxas's wrist. "Too bad my genius self probably won't be going to college now."

"Don't be stupid. You think anyone is going to turn down The Great Riku?" Kairi said flatly. "Recruiters wouldn't care if you killed somebody. You're lucky that we did this now while we're still too young to go to jail for it."

"What about you?" Sora asked as he turned to Kairi. "You won't exactly be popular anymore when you end up in Juvie."

"I don't care. I already got what I wanted." Kairi smiled happily at Sora, who began to blush in turn. "I'm happy now."

"Done." Riku saved Sora from an awkward moment by announcing that he was finished with dressing Roxas. He made the catboy face everyone to put him on display. "One fashion victim ready for launch."

Roxas was wearing a stylish pair of cargo pants that were khaki up to his knees and black up to his waist. It was topped by a black vest with a silver zipper that was shaped as a four point star. Layered above it was a white jacket with black lines patterned in incomplete squares across the seams of the sleeves. Kairi even matched the outfit with a pair of black, flat-topped shoes and a black baseball cap.

Sora and Kairi began to wolf whistle and taunt "that's hot" at the catboy. Roxas stared at them flatly, but the expression only lasted a few seconds before dropping into one of depression.

"It's okay kitty," cooed Sora softly. Almost automatically, he gathered Roxas into his arms and comforted him with cuddles. "Don't be sad. We're here for you." He would have kissed his lover, but he suddenly realized that he was still in the presence of Riku and Kairi. When he glanced at them, he saw Riku averting his eyes and Kairi bowing her head with a sad expression. The guilt that Sora felt at that moment was almost overwhelming. Just moving his lips to speak felt heavy and difficult. ".. Guys.. I.."

"You're lucky," interrupted Roxas. He didn't look at Riku or Kairi, but his words were obviously meant for them. "You get to keep Sora."

It was too uncomfortable to talk about their feelings, so no one said anything. Wildlife chirruped and rustled around them, as if mocking them with how easily animals could live and move on, and they could not. As time went on, their extreme exhaustion claimed them one by one. Sora crumpled to the grass with Roxas on his lap, followed by Kairi beside him. Riku tried to be their sentinel, but he too succumbed and slumped onto his side. Their bodies formed a circle on the grass; their lax, outstretched arms a parody of the hands of a timeless clock that went on forever as the shadows and sunlight shivered over them with the breeze.

Roxas waited until everyone was fast asleep before removing himself from Sora's lap. He wasn't the least bit affected by the sedative anymore and had not been for the past hour, he only pretended so that sneaking away would be easier. The alien raided the speedboat until he found his spaceship, and then he walked towards the beach with his ship tucked under his arm. People always left their rowboats unguarded at the docks, and even if the helicopters were looking for a blonde headed kid, when they passed over his boat all they would see was a yellow cat.

Roxas was determined to leave the planet, but before he boarded his ship, there were a few loose ends to tie up.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


At the high school, students were gathered in the auditorium to hear the final speeches of the candidates that were running for student council president. For Rufus, this was nothing more than a formality, "Dyne" had already been taken care of by the Jenova Project. This was confirmed by the rumors that were buzzing around school about strange people and police coming to Sora's house. Many believed that Roxas was a drug dealer and that a special task force had finally caught him in the act of selling. Others made passing mentions of aliens and strange creatures, but those people were quickly laughed down. After all, there were no such things as aliens and monsters.

During his speech, Rufus promised to be a reliable president as he had been for the past two years, one that held more interest in student affairs instead of staying out to party, calling out 'sick' almost everyday or causing controversy. The students in the auditorium applauded the points that he made, and he paused to receive the praise with his usual practiced air of humble acceptance.

Rufus spoke again when the applause died down. "I regret to say that my running partner is not here to speak to all of you today, although I am sure that if he had been present, he would have had a lot of important things to say."

"Geez, you show up a measly twenty five minutes late and the party starts without you."

A gasp went through the crowd. Every student turned around in their seats to look towards the back of the auditorium, where Roxas was standing in front of the entrance doors. He imperiously walked down the carpeted aisle towards the stage area, drawing whispers and eyes with every step he took. Rufus's campaign committee backed away in a wave when the blonde headed kid leapt onto the stage, and Selphie looked as if she was going to cry from relief. The poor girl had taken it upon herself to apologize to the student body and speak in Roxas's absence, but now that he was here she was relieved from that awful duty.

"Ahem." Roxas chased Rufus away from the microphone by merely standing close to him, and then he took his place in front of the podium. "I'm afraid that I have some bad news for everyone. My family decided that they didn't like the beach, so I'm moving out of Destiny Islands."

A ripple went through the crowd. This clenched it, Roxas really was a drug dealer! Why else would he suddenly leave the island?

Roxas continued speaking despite the murmuring. "Now before you start saying how messed up that is, I would like my fans to know that I am passing my candidacy to Riku. He believes in a lot of the same things that I do, and I have a lot of respect for him, despite his being a dumb jock."

This caused many students of the female persuasion to murmur excitedly. Riku for president? That was too cool! Needless to say, Riku would have no problem in terms of winning the vote of every single girl in the entire school. Rufus was less than pleased, judging by the thunderous expression on his face.

Roxas raised his hand to quiet the crowd. "One more thing, about all the rumors you have been hearing. I think it's time we cleared the water on this. The real reason all this strange stuff on Destiny Islands has been happening is because," he paused to draw in a dramatic breath, and then he yelled into the microphone, "Because I've been sleeping with Rufus Shinra!"

"Ajkf;dlsjfdj;fjdkslajf;djsafdsfj," said everyone in the auditorium. Rufus went slack jawed with shock, and then he began yelling that it was a lie, but no one could hear him over all the commotion in the auditorium.

"You know, I had no idea that he would be such a difficult lay," continued Roxas. "If I had known that his rich parents were going to send the police and the S. W. A. T. team for one little blowjob, I would have said fuck it."

"JFKLDSJ:FDSJFKJ:FJDF:DJFDKFJ!!!!" went the students.

The school principal looked like he was going to die of a heart attack. Meanwhile, the disciplinarian was rapidly making his way towards the stage area from the back of the auditorium with a beyond pissed expression on his face.

"So I wanted to say, goodbye Rufus, and thank you for all the hot sex." Upon finishing his grand speech, Roxas turned and gave the ex-president a cheeky smile.

"JFKDSLFJ:JFK:LJDKFJD:FJAKL:JG," and this time, those were Rufus's sentiments as he rushed at Roxas. "I'll show you the truth of this freak!" He yelled, just before snatching the baseball cap off Roxas's head.

The auditorium suddenly went silent. Roxas turned to face Rufus with a bland expression on his face. Idly, he ran his fingers through his choppy hair, which were completely devoid of any cat ears to snag his fingers on. "If you wanted to touch me that bad, you could have just said so," he said airily.

Rufus was dumbfounded. Where were the ears?! In the background, Reno looked as if he were about to die of apoplexy.

"You want to check my butt too?" added Roxas with a shameless leer. "Here kitty kitty~." He snatched Rufus's wrist in an iron grip, making him drop the baseball hat that was in his hands, and then yanked him forwards to press a sloppy kiss to his lips.

Sadly, none of the other Turks came to Rufus's rescue while this travesty occurred, because they were terrified of Roxas. They all had seen the videotape, they had heard about the explosions on the mountain in the morning news, there were police everywhere, and despite the fact that none of it added up, they were still convinced that Roxas was dangerous.

There was only one person who didn't look shocked by what was going on, and that was bald-headed Rude. He wore a huge grin on his face as he watched Rufus get kissed by an alien catboy, and then he said, "I told you Rufus was gay."

Reno and Tseng stared at their comrade, who had broken his silence for the first time since freshman year.

Since the disciplinarian was fast approaching, Roxas shoved the flailing Rufus off the stage and made a break for it. The entire student body was in an uproar, and in the confusion he managed to escape through the exit doors of the auditorium.

Meanwhile, Selphie remained riveted in her spot with a mixed look of shock and disbelief. She couldn't believe it. Roxas had just single-handedly destroyed the reputation of the most powerful Turk on campus. Not only was Rufus never going to be president again, but no one would be caught dead associating with the Turks anymore. The school was now free from the reign of the popular kids.

Free.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


Once outside, Roxas ducked into the closest alleyway and shape shifted into a cat. All of Destiny Islands was being searched for humans who went by the names of Kairi, Sora, Riku and "Dyne," but they certainly weren't sending any police after yellow cats. Roxas high tailed it through the city towards the shoreline, but was disappointed to find that the coastguard was now out in full force. His only option now was to wait until nightfall to launch his ship. In the meantime, he had to keep moving to avoid being found by the Katinans.

Meanwhile, Sora, Riku and Kairi were in a bit of a panic because they had woken up to find Roxas and the spaceship missing. Since the speedboat was still around and Roxas had a healthy fear of water, they didn't believe that he had made it off the island. So they went in separate directions and began searching through the foliage in hopes of finding the missing alien, all while keeping out of sight of any kids that may have been playing on the beach.

_I knew he would do something like this_ Sora thought to himself. It was just like Roxas to attempt to leave the planet without saying goodbye. Further thoughts on the matter were broken when his cell phone began to vibrate. He pulled it from his pocket and checked the LCD display to make sure that it wasn't his mom calling for the bajillionth time. When Riku's name popped up, he answered it without hesitation. "Did you find anything?" he said into the receiver.

"You guys are looking for me already? I thought you'd be sleeping for at least another hour," said Roxas from the other end of the line.

"Roxas!" Sora was utterly relieved to confirm that Roxas was all right. He clutched the cell phone in two hands as if he was afraid that the connection would be lost if he so much as dropped it. "Where are you? I can't believe you stole Riku's phone."

"He's got like fifty numbers of just girls on this thing. And he's password locked some pictures, I bet you anything they are pictures of your butt."

"Roxas, where are you," asked Sora again with a note of pleading.

"I stopped by school to tie up a few loose ends."

"You went to school? Are you crazy! Everyone would have seen you!"

"Heh heh, they got an eyeful alright." Roxas smiled smugly.

Sora could practically feel that smile from all the way where he was. "What did you do? I can't believe you went back to school. We should be sticking together right now."

"I just passed my presidency to Riku, no big deal." Roxas chose not to elaborate on the other things that transpired, Sora would find out everything from Selphie soon enough. "Anyway, I called because I picked the island I'm going to launch from. It's the next one over from the crash sight, and I'm going to be there by 9:00 pm. Meet me there."

"Alright, I'll tell Riku and Kairi to -"

"Don't tell them," interrupted Roxas.

"What?" Sora was so surprised by what Roxas said that he went completely still.

"Don't say anything. It was just you and me from the beginning and that's the way it should end. Besides, Kairi will just cry and Riku will probably start dancing the second I go. You're the only one who should be there."

"Roxas.." murmured Sora.

"You and me, we have a great thing together. I don't care if you love me or not, we had good times Sora. I'm a better cat because of you. Just do this one last favor, come alone and then you'll never have to lie for me ever again. I promise."

There was a long pause, and then Sora finally answered. "Okay, I'll come alone."

"Great! I gotta go now, people are less suspicious of cats in trees than humans in trees. See ya in a few hours."

The connection was terminated. Sora found himself staring down at his cell phone for a long time.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


When the sun vanished behind the horizon, the coastguard called off their search due to the lack of visibility. It was the perfect time to make a break for the shoreline. Roxas padded through a dense thicket of palm trees that hid the beach from view, and as he passed one lean shadow he emerged from feline form to humanoid. He paused to brush some sand off his khakis, and while he was busy grooming himself, a voice came from the darkness.

"You have lost your tail and ears. You can even shift now without losing your clothing." Behind Roxas, Axel was casually leaning his back against a palm tree. He gestured grandly with every word that he said. "You've grown up so much on this dinky planet."

Roxas pivoted to face the Rajah's son and quickly went into a battle stance. "You're harder to shake than a flea," he said with a contemptuous glare.

Axel detached himself from the shadows like a wraith. The tattoos on his face extended like daggers with every moonlit leaf that briefly shaded his face. "And you clearly have nine lives. How many do you think you sacrificed by jumping over the cliff like that? Think you got more to spare?" The alien extended his left arm away from his body, and a chakram appeared in a flash of light and darkness.

Roxas glared at Axel, and then he held out his own hands. Similar to the summoning of the chakram, bolt shaped flashes of black and white flashed within his palms. They dispersed to reveal two sword-like weapons: One as black as the night sky, and the other as white as the moonlit sand. They were expertly spun like batons in his palms and then leveled at Axel in a threatening manner.

"Two keyblades," Axel sneered. "You're really planning to go all out this time."

"Let me pass," said Roxas in a dangerously toneless voice.

"Not until we talk. I meant what I said back then. You've always meant a lot to me Roxas, no matter what you might think."

Roxas laughed bitterly. "You think you can spout that bullshit now and expect me to just fall for you like I'm some stupid little kitling? You made my life HELL!"

"You made MY life hell! You think it was easy to grow up with someone who hated you every step of the way? I did what I had to do to break your spirit. You're supposed to be my Jumi."

"And you enjoyed it you sick fuck."

"I did didn't I?" Merely remembering those 'good times' made Axel grin sadistically. "Come on Dyne. If you hate Katina so much, then let's take this stupid planet. I'll raze it to the ground and take the prettiest humans for us to fuck. I'll bring you your Sora and have him begging for you every night."

"You won't touch a drop of dirt from this planet."

"You're about as fun as a ball with no catnip." Axel's expression dropped in disappointment with his words, but only for a few seconds. Afterwards, a grin became plastered on his face as he extended his second arm and summoned another chakram to his palm. "Fine! We'll do things the old fashioned way. You ready for this Dyne?"

The wind that was flowing in from the ocean suddenly spiked in temperature, becoming ten degrees hotter in an instant. Roxas gritted his teeth against the familiar influx of power from the chakrams. "The name is ROXAS!" With that, he rushed forwards and brought his keyblades down on Axel. The older cat met the first strikes with a wild grin and a block with both of his weapons.

Thick heat began to build up between their bodies. Roxas's eyes widened in warning, and he somersaulted backwards just as molten fire burst like a flower from the chakrams. The flames ripped through the place he once stood and arched high enough to set the palm trees on fire. Smoldering leaves crackled and fell all around them as Axel charged forwards, both chakrams dripping tears of heated energy that had become the template for the tattoos on his face. One was sent hurtling towards the retreating Roxas like a discus, but missed its mark when it was knocked off course by a swing of the keyblades.

Roxas's weapons were now coming alive with power. His dark keyblade trailed filaments of light whereas its inverse traced streaks of darkness. They worked fast and furiously to block twin chakrams that were now whizzing through the air as if possessed. The streams of energy from the keyblades cut cleanly through the trees with every strike that missed chakrams that hovered and changed directions as if directed by an invisible hand.

Their fighting momentarily paused as several trees began to groan and topple to the floor. Roxas leapt onto one of the falling palms and sprinted across its length, and managed to launch himself into the air before the trunk completely crashed into the sand. He cart wheeled while he was airborne and punched his hands forwards to send a rain of prismatic missiles into the burning thicket while he was upside down. Explosions ripped across the terrain with each impact of rod-shaped energy, causing dust and sand to rise into the air.

Roxas landed on the sand beyond the tree line, breathing heavily. Some of the dust began to settle, revealing car-shaped craters where the missiles had hit. The thicket of palm trees was now completely on fire; the smell of burning wood cloyed his nose and the rising black smoke made his eyes sting.

To Roxas's dismay, a wall of white energy located within the burning trees could be seen traveling in his direction at a leisurely pace. Axel was approaching with a protective barrier made of bright hexagons of power. It curved around him like a bubble, protecting him from falling trees, fire and prismatic missiles. The shielding was transparent enough to allow Roxas to see that Axel was still wearing the same smile he had when their fight first started. As soon as the Rajah's son exited the dangerous thicket, the energy field dropped and the Katinans were once again facing each other, separated by only six paces.

"Haa-AH!" Roxas yelled with fury as he closed the distance between them and swept his keyblades into strikes that moved so fast that sand was kicked up in their wake. Blow for blow, the weapons rang shrilly as each strike was met by a flaming chakram. Frustrated by Axel's flawless defense, Roxas took a flying leap backwards and sent another volley of prismatic missiles towards Axel. The redhead grunted loudly as he threw both chakrams into the hail of energy, which tore through the rod-shaped flashes of light and spiked towards Roxas's body without error.

Roxas barely had enough time to tuck and roll out of range before he was maimed by the flying weapons. His clothing caught on fire from the passing heat of the chakrams, but they were quickly doused by a sudden rush of water. The chill of being submerged in liquid made Roxas stand up quickly; it turned out that he had rolled right into the ocean. A high tide was in, and the waves were beating against the back of his knees with every pass.

From the shoreline, Axel caught the return arc of his weapons and stared at Roxas to gauge his next move.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" yelled Roxas. A grim smile stretched his lips as he walked backwards, drawing himself even deeper into the ocean. "The water is FINE!"

Axel only hesitated for a few moments before narrowing his eyes and walking towards the shore. "I always knew you were all wet," he said darkly. When he entered the water, steam billowed from any seawater that splashed against his chakrams.

As if able to reach each other's minds, they simultaneously leapt out of the water to clash in midair. Their twisting bodies were a dark silhouette against the white moon, and every clash of their weapons was like a thunderclap against a cloudless sky. It was a brief, lightning fast duel that ended when one kicked the other in the gut and sent the unlucky cat hurtling towards the ocean below.

The loser landed in the water with a roaring splash and a pillar of steam, and was immediately caught in the riptide of a passing wave. He suffered the horror of tumbling head over tail as he was dragged across bedrock until the ocean had mercy and spit him out on the shoreline.

Roxas landed in the water as gracefully as a swan alighting to swim, and then he strode through the breakers with both keyblades held ready at his side. When he approached Axel's body, he kicked it over with his wet sneakers to make him turn onto his back. His black keyblade was lowered to the redhead's neck.

"Who's all wet now?" asked Roxas in a perfectly emotionless voice.

Axel coughed up bitter seawater, and then he began to laugh. He spent several minutes simply laughing and choking until he was finally willing to say something coherent. "Hah hah hah! Hah. Haaah. So you finally beat me. It's about time. I wouldn't expect less than that from the Jumi I picked." He grinned as a large wave crumbled into breakers and rushed past them. The sea foam caught Axel's hair and made it fan like dancing fire.

"I don't want your flattery, just your begging. Make this interesting for me, Axel." Roxas pressed the keyblade deeper into the redhead's skin, enough to cause its sharp tines to start drawing blood.

Axel's nostrils flared with the sudden distress of needing to breathe. "Blood is my favorite smell," he said, and his eyes became wide as if he was witnessing something horrible. "Now we all drown in it. On the day that you left, my father was leading an attack on another citadel. It turned out that our enemies weren't weak after all. They were only pretending to suffer huge casualties just to lure us in. Everyone who went to that battle died."

Roxas's mouth went slack. He remembered that squadron clearly, because that was the day he faked his Estrus. When the shields of the citadel were opened to allow the Rajah to leave with his army, he used that opportunity to escape Katina by spaceship. If what Axel was saying was true, then that meant that the Rajah of the Spiral Claws was dead. That many of his fellow Jumis were now dead. That Tsuz, he.. he didn't make it..

"It makes your tail spin doesn't it?" continued Axel with mock terror. "We lost all our warriors in one fell swoop, and now our citadel is ripe for picking. We would have been dead if you weren't so damn picky."

"Why aren't you protecting the citadel?" Roxas's voice was now sharp with reprimand. All the cats that he grew up with, all those friends that he had left behind, who was going to protect them if there were no warriors left? "You are now Rajah of the Spiral Claws, what in the name of the goddesses are you doing way out here? Are you that obsessed with me?!"

"Don't lick your own fur. As nice as it would be to have you tied to my tail, I do have ulterior motives." Axel turned his nose up despite the fact that he was the one on the ground with a keyblade pressed to his throat. "The Spiral Claws are toast. There's no way we can hold that citadel for long. It's better if we follow your example and leave the planet. You were right, the war on Katina is never going to end. We should leave and be free, and let the rest of the turds fight themselves out of existence."

"And you want to bring them to Earth?" asked Roxas with a disbelieving stare. "No, I know you. You'll want to get rid of the humans first."

"They're in the way," answered Axel offhandedly. He grimaced when his answer earned him another hard press of the keyblade to his throat. "There's no other way. It's your choice. You can save your own people, or earn your tattoos."

Roxas had dreamed of the moment when he would finally kill Axel ever since he learned what the meaning of death was. It was incredibly tempting to just do it and satisfy his lifelong dream once and for all. Axel deserved it. For his family, for all the cats who were killed or orphaned, for all of Destiny Islands, for Sora, Axel deserved it a thousand times over.

But for once, Roxas hadn't lied. He had told Sora the truth when he said that he had become a better cat.

The keyblade was slowly drawn away, much to Axel's immense relief. He thought that Roxas had a change of heart and would now do things his way.

However, he was sorely mistaken. "We're going back to Katina. I will go as your Jumi, but only in appearances alone. I was the one who defeated you, you will now bow to me in private." When Axel gaped these words, Roxas gave him a sharp look. "We will start a revolution in our world, beginning with returning the Estrus to its original meaning. Cats will choose their own mates. We will also no longer kill other cats. There will be no Rajah., only a ruling body chosen by the majority of cats. Monarchy will be a thing of the past, and all land will be shared. There will be nothing left to fight over, because everyone will own it."

"You have gone crazy!" shouted Axel. He was tempted to shape shift his car ears into existence just to make sure that he was really hearing the insanity that was pouring out of Roxas's mouth. "These humans have brainwashed you!"

Roxas shrugged one of his shoulders. "If it doesn't work out, then we can leave the planet. It's win-win if you ask me. So are you in on it, or do I have to kill you anyway?"

Wearing a flabbergasted expression, Axel climbed to his feet. "And what exactly will be calling this fairy tale that you're suddenly pulling out of your ass? Dynatropolis?" he asked dryly.

"No. The New Order." Roxas grin was filled with self-satisfaction. "The Organization. And the name's Roxas. Got it memorized?"

Axel had to laugh. Roxas was turning out to be even more insane than he was.

He knew that there was a reason why he liked his Jumi so much.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


It was around 9:20 pm when Roxas made it to the island next to the crash site. He was a little late because he had to make final arrangements with Axel and then part ways without being seen by the firemen that had come to put out the blazing tree line.

As promised, Sora had come alone. Under the pretense that he was going to use the bathroom, he left the campsite and walked down to the beach to steal a rowboat. It was risky to row to the appointed island because of the helicopters, but luckily they were all distracted by a fire that was occurring on the mainland. He arrived safe and sound on the island, and he waited tensely for his alien friend to arrive.

Sora's heart gave a small jump when he spied his pet rowing towards the island in a wooden boat. He barely waited for Roxas to make it to the shore before rushing to him and catching him in a hug. They stood that way in silence, neither of them caring about the water washing over their feet or the rowboat drifting lazily back into the ocean.

It was Roxas who pulled away first and took hold of Sora's hand. "We have to hurry," he murmured before dragging his lover deeper into the island. Sora obediently followed.

As soon as they found a clearing, Roxas let go of Sora and knelt down. He retrieved the gummi ship from the backpack that Kairi had been keeping it in and placed it on the grass.

"..Your ears are gone," Sora said with a hint of amazement. He was staring at the crown of blonde hair that was on Roxas's head.

The alien patted his head self-consciously, and then smiled wanly. "I've finally turned into an old cat, Sora."

Come to think of it, Axel didn't have any ears either. It would have saved them a lot of grief if Roxas had been able to shape shift his ears away from the very beginning, but honestly Sora was too emotionally drained to fight over it. Instead, he watched Roxas work on his ship with a hollow expression.

After a few moments, Roxas made a strangled noise in the back of his throat. "There's still a piece missing. How could we have missed something so important?"

Sora watched his cat be frustrated for a few moments, and then he slowly reached into his pocket and retrieved a small cube. It was held out for Roxas to see.

Roxas stopped his muttering when he saw that the piece had never gone missing, it had simply been stolen. He took it from Sora's palm with a muted smile. "I've been a bad influence on you, haven't I?"

"I just wanted to make sure that you'd at least say goodbye," Sora murmured.

Roxas met Sora's eyes for a few moments. Then he turned back to his ship, and connected the final piece. He waved his hand over the spacecraft once, then urged Sora to step back as he did the same. The small ship vanished into a silhouette of white, and then it began to expand outwards in the same manner that Roxas's body did whenever he changed into his humanoid form. It grew lengthwise to about 30 feet with a width of 60 that toppled any trees that had the misfortune of being in the way of its wingspan. The ship stopped growing when it reached a height of 20 feet, and then the glow receded to reveal its true form. It looked exactly like it did when it was small, only bigger.

One of the bay doors automatically opened, and a plank extracted itself from the ship's interior. The feminine voice that had been programmed into the computer system announced in the language of Katina that the ship was now ready for boarding.

"I guess this is it then," Sora said softly.

Roxas took one step towards the plank, but that was as far as he went. He stood there with his head bowed, and after a few moments, began to speak. "Sora." He turned to face the other boy. "Come with me."

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


"Did you find him?" Kairi asked breathlessly.

"No," answered Riku.

Hours ago, they had split up to search for Roxas, and when it got too dark they regrouped at the campsite. They decided that if the alien didn't show up by the following morning, then they would assume that he made it off the planet and turn themselves in to the authorities.

So they huddled together and waited the hours away, and then around 8:30pm Sora said that he was going to use the bathroom. He walked through the bushes, and he never came back. Riku and Kairi immediately began looking for him when they realized that something was wrong. It was possible that Sora had been caught by the police, or ran into the aliens from Katina, or had gotten lost in the wooded area. Sadly, despite an hour and a half of searching, there was no sign of him.

"Now they're both missing," lamented Kairi. "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know," answered Riku. The worry was practically eating him alive and making it hard to think.

Since Kairi saw Riku as the stronger one, she was disheartened to hear that he didn't have a plan. The girl looked up at the sky, as if the answer was scrawled in the heavens, and then said in a shaky voice, "Riku, do you think that Sora would.."

There was no need for Kairi to finish that sentence, because Riku was already thinking the same thing. Would Sora leave with Roxas to go to another world? He believed that it was possible. After all, seeing what was out there was something that Sora had always dreamed about. "Check the phone again," Riku said tensely. Unfortunately, he couldn't make his own phone calls since his cell phone had mysteriously gone missing.

With a nod, Kairi procured her cell phone from her pocket and speed dialed Sora's number. They had been trying to call Sora ever since he went missing, but the boy never answered. She had little hope of things being different this time. Therefore, Kairi was very surprised when the messaging service picked up and Sora's familiar voice had something new to say:

[Fourth island.]

Kairi's eyes widened. "We have to go, now!" Without waiting for Riku to answer, she dashed towards the speedboat at top speed, forgetting all about stealth.

Riku was at her heels, alarm written all over his face. "What happened?"

Kairi answered while she slammed against the side of the speedboat and tried pushing it back into the water. Riku helped her when he saw what she was doing. "He already left! He's with Roxas and they might be leaving right now!"

Riku uttered a curse as he used all his power to help shove the boat back into the water. As soon as Kairi was able, she hopped onboard and revved the motors to life while Riku knocked palm fronds overboard with agitated kicks.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


The look in Sora's eyes was soft and filled with understanding. "This was why you wanted me to come alone, isn't it?"

"It's a choice I wanted you to make for yourself," said Roxas. A choice that Riku and Kairi would have very strong opinions about. They already knew what Sora's friends would say about it, so Roxas decided that it was better if they were not a part of this.

Sora looked past Roxas to the ship that was lying in wait. Its interior looked clean and sterile, and every now and then, that female voice would utter something in Roxas's language. "What would it be like if I lived on your world?"

"Different," answered Roxas. "I would have to fight everyday, and you would stay behind and make sure that our kittens are safe. There will be times when people make fun of you or don't trust you because you're a human, but we'd always be together. I'd find you a mate to keep you company on those times when I'm gone, and your arms will always be full our kittens."

Sora smiled, and knew in his heart that Roxas was being honest about the reality of living on Katina. It sounded like a difficult life, as well as one that carried a lot of responsibility. Even though he always wanted to do something amazing like see another world, he knew deep down that in the end, he wasn't going to be happy. "I'm not ready for that, Roxas. My own family is just starting again. I have a little brother."

"I know." Roxas smiled despite everything. "I knew you would say that. But I had to ask anyway, you know?" With that, Roxas began to ascend the plank to board his ship.

"I love you."

Roxas froze in mid-step, and then he closed his eyes. "It's not love, Sora. The way you feel is a result of a chemical bond we have with each other. That's just how the Estrus works."

Sora shook his head in the negative. "No, I loved you since the day I found you. When you were just a sad little cat." The boy smiled fondly, and tilted his head down. "It just took me a while to realize it."

Roxas's breath hitched, and then he ran back down the plank and threw his arms around Sora. The boy caught his pet and held him as close to his body as possible.

"Sora," murmured Roxas as he buried his face into his mate's shoulder. "This isn't over. I'll come back, no matter how long it takes, I'll come back to you. I'll live so I can be the one you do your income tax with."

Sora laughed brokenly as he ran his hands through Roxas's hair over and over again, simply petting. "Promise me you'll be happy?"

"I am happy." Roxas wiped his face and then leaned away. "I have something important to live for."

"And we have our memories," whispered Sora. He cupped the side of Roxas's face and gazed adoringly into his beautiful eyes. He memorized them one more time, before leaning forwards and kissing his lover gently.

Roxas fisted his hands into Sora's jacket and met the boy's mouth with fervor. He licked and fluttered kisses all over Sora's face, and the boy returned his affections with the same burning. The taste, the smell, the feel, the touch of Sora; Roxas took it all in until he felt that he would overflow with love. Then he stepped back, and his grasp slipped from the boy's body. Sora's hands slowly traced down Roxas's arms as he became more distant, caught momentarily at their fingertips, and then let go.

The alien walked up the gangplank and stopped just as he reached his ship's interior. Roxas looked over his shoulder, the majority of his face shielded by the high collar of his white jacket, and simply watched Sora through his blonde bangs as the bay doors began to close. "By the way," he said casually, "I know Riku is going to be all over you before I'm so much as out of the atmosphere. You have my permission to fuck him to get it out of your system. But if I were you, I'd take a card from one of my people, and consider keeping an open relationship to save yourself the agony of having both your friends fight over you."

After those parting words, the bay doors closed and Roxas was gone from sight. Moments later, the thrusters beneath the ship flared to life and spat blue exhaust from their monstrous mouths. Sora eyes squinted as the ship began to rise into the air.

Since all of his attention was on the departing spacecraft, he barely heard the voices in the distance calling his name.

"Sora!"

"Sora!!"

Riku and Kairi burst into the clearing, panicked at the thought that the ship was leaving with Sora onboard. They were relieved to see their friend still standing on the planet, bathed in the fluorescent glow of the spaceship's take off. The three of them covered their eyes when the vessel suddenly shot to the heavens and kicked up a powerful wind in its wake that nearly took them off their feet. Then they watched, hearts beating as it streaked away, leaving a bright after burn in the stratosphere of their planet.

The teenagers stood there for what seemed like forever, staring up at the sky. Then Kairi lowered her gaze to Sora, and murmured his name softly. "..Sora.."

"When I grow up," broke in Sora before Kairi could say anything else, "I want to be an astronaut. I always wanted to see what was up there."

A silence stretched after that, then Riku said carefully, "Don't you think you'll have to pull something better than a D in math to be an astronaut?"

"Heh heh, yeah. I can still change. I've still got a long way to go, right?" Sora smiled wistfully at the sky.

Tears began to spill from Kairi's eyes.

Sora's friends stood behind him, the way they had always been.

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


"Captain's Log, 22.4.5 Cycles. En route to Katina, warp 10. I never thought I'd be willing to head back to that hellhole, but here I am. Sora's weird sense of responsibility has rubbed off on me, so now I feel kind of obligated to help my people out. It sucks, but I'm not scared. I think this is going to be a good thing. I really do feel happy, because I'm going to save everybody.. and change my world."

Roxas stood in front of the view screen, which was displaying warp space in all of its fast moving glory. Starlight raced by in bright streaks that briefly illuminated the catboy's face with every pass.

"It's funny. He arrived on a special night. The night I finally chose to be free. Even from the beginning, he was always getting himself into trouble. All those bullies, and the Turks, and of course, me. But he was always a strong kid. When people said he couldn't make it, he always proved them wrong. Then again, he is a little on the dumb side. I was practically humping his leg for weeks and he couldn't figure out that I liked him. He should have recognized the signs back then, but how was he supposed to know what was really going on? I guess I'm just too good at hiding, and humans are really good at denying.

"But there's one thing that I really have to give Sora credit for. In Katina, everyone tried to change me by fighting me. But he did it by being my friend. I'm proud of my Alpha. I will uphold his honor by doing everything in his name. He is my heart. End log."

"Log saved," stated the cockpit's automated system.

"Well that wasn't sappy," Roxas said lamely. Still, he felt better after getting that off his chest. Just when he was about to retire to the bunker and sulk over being separated from Sora, an incoming message came from Axel's ship. With a roll of his eyes, he pressed the button to answer the hail. "What now?"

"You are to disarm yourself," stated Axel in a cool voice. His face appeared in a small window on the view screen, and despite how menacing he looked, Roxas knew better. The new Rajah of the Spiral Claws was wrapped around his tail.

"Whatever." Roxas took off his rings and his wristband and placed them on top of the console. Then he gave the Rajah a dismissive wave. "You can teleport them onto your ship whenever you feel it."

Axel stared at Roxas for a few moments longer, and then his transmission terminated.

Roxas smirked as he jingled the crown chain that he filched from Sora's room before he left Destiny Islands for the last time. All he had to do now was spread unrest throughout the citadel, stage an uprising against Axel, fortify the city and then find allies that would be willing to hear the new message he was going to spread throughout all of Katina. In the midst of it all, he would use one of his Estruses to tie a cute cat to him that would bear his children, and when he was done, he would fly back to Earth and catch Sora just as he was finishing his college. Then, they could pick up where they left off and begin their family together.

Simple. Right?

{{-----------------------------------------------}}

  


  


"Sooooora! You're going to be late for your parole officer."

"I know mom! I'm almost done," called Sora from his room. In a lower voice, he whispered to the small baby that he was balancing on his hip. "Mommy is always so loud, isn't she?"

Sora's little brother clung to his shirt and stared at the world around him with wide, innocent eyes.

The boy sat down in front of his desk and shifted the baby to his lap. The child found the textbooks and pictures that were decorating the desktop interesting, but his attention only lasted for a few seconds. There were a lot of old pictures still on the desk, such as photos of Sora, Riku and Kairi taken on the day they were on the Lifestream, pictures from school that they randomly took while they were at the lunch table, and homecoming pictures of all of them together with Roxas.

The newest pictures showed how they aged over the last year and a half. Kairi's hair was now past her shoulders and very beautiful, and Riku was practically a giant and stronger than ever. Sora, on the other hand, simply seemed to grow more and more handsome, and there were pictures of him kissing Kairi in a photo booth and other pictures where he looked startled with a suspiciously innocent Riku sitting nearby with his hands hidden from the camera's view. Many of the new pictures had the three of them together, huddled under blankets or sitting by a fire at the beach.

Sora snatched his wallet from the desk's surface, checked to make sure his ID, money and condoms were there, then stuffed it into the back pocket of his blue jeans. Then he cradled the baby in the crook of his arm and pointed to one of the framed pictures.

"See Denzel? That's Roxas. He's a special kitty. Look."

The picture that Sora pointed to was one of a yellow cat that was sitting on a windowsill on a clear day. Sunlight made the pale fuzz on the feline's head shine like a bright corona. It looked as if it was waiting for something in the distance. Denzel vaguely peered in the direction of the picture before turning his face towards the preferred sound of Sora's voice.

Unable to resist such a cute face, Sora showered his little brother with kisses. Denzel may not have understood the specialness of the picture, but even at his young age, he knew what affection was. So the baby cooed and smiled in delight at all the kisses and clung to his big brother even more.

Sora smiled warmly and stood up from his chair, but did not leave without touching the picture of the yellow kitty one last time, in memory of the first love.  
  
  
  


**The End**  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Author's Note:** I find it very ironic that this story ended on chapter 13 since that was Roxas's official Organization number. I'd like to thank everyone who read this story so far and left such wonderful comments. Since this story was so long, there's probably a lot of questions about the content and about what happened afterwards. I'll be glad to answer any, and I might consider adding an extra section to this fic where I can answer people directly if this story is posted somewhere that doesn't let me comment on people's comments.
> 
> Some of you might ask if there will be a sequel. I really don't want to write a sequel, because it wouldn't have as much meaning as Fuzzy Love did. It would be dry and full of porn, and I'd hate to see a good story degrade into that. I might be tempted to write one shots or an epilogue someday, but I'm not going to make any promises. I really like the way this one ended and I don't want to hurt it with superfluous writing.
> 
> Some people might want to know what happened next, particularly if Roxas's 'simple plan' was carried out exactly the way he said it. That, I will leave up to your imaginations. If you believe that Roxas could do it, then he probably did. If you think he's still too immature to realize what he's doing, then maybe he never made it. What's being conveyed here is that life happens, and sometimes its good, and sometimes its bad, but in the end it always goes on.
> 
> As for Sora's relationship choices, that's also something you'll have to decide for yourselves. If I do make a one-shot someday, it would probably center around this. Again, if you could place yourself in Sora's shoes, what would you do? What is the right choice? How do you define love in your life? How do you control your own change?
> 
> Finally, for those interested in what I will do next, I will probably continue to center on Roxas x Sora stories. This time though, I'll stick to canon Roxas instead of going with a fan personality. I think the real thing has a lot of intricacies that are worth exploring.
> 
> That's pretty much it. I'd like to thank Michelle for giving me constructive feedback on how to improve my writing. I have gone back and revised my chapters many times because of her, and I will probably keep doing it until the end of time. I want to thank Rick who gave the blonde headed kid his attitude before Roxas came out in Kingdom Hearts 2, and also for suggesting that I write a story on catboys. And finally, last but not least, I want to thank my kitties for being a continual source of inspiration. To this day, I don't know any other creature, human or otherwise who acts as if they love unconditionally. No manner how many times I shut them out of my room, shoo them away from my food, leave them locked outside or sometimes skip dinners when the food runs out, they always return to be petted. And that is something we can all learn from.  
>   
>   
> 


End file.
